One Tragedy
by Justicerocks
Summary: When tragedy strikes Aaron's family in Houston Aaron has to step up and take in his young nieces. After surviving a horrific ordeal will the young girls ever be okay again? How will Emily and Aaron's relationship be affected?
1. Chapter 1

**A\N 1:** Okay so this is kind of like a re-write of my pervious story of the same name. But its going to be completely different and this time I plan on finishing it. I've been so inspired by all of the new Emron and other stories posted on here. They've all helped me write this story so much. A huge thank you to those authors.

 **A\N 2:** This story is a little AU in that Aaron was never suspected of treason so he's still the COS. Also, Aaron and Emily have been dating for five months.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own anything.

 **Spoilers:** None

 **Warinings:** None

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

10 hours, 30 minutes and 5 seconds.

Aaron ran a hand over his face as he looked at his watch. Dropping his pen he finally decided to give up on trying to get any work done. Turning up the volume on the TV watched as the newscast continued to show live breaking news of the Hurricane in Houston. He had to tell himself not to cry as places he'd gone to as a child were ruined. His entire community flooded out, and quite possibly his entire family dead. Houston had, had lots of Hurricane before but this one was the worst one on record and it was getting the city, with astounding force.

"Any word on your family?" Emily asked as she walked into Aaron's office. Closing the door she walked over to him and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. It wasn't a secret they were dating, but they didn't like to do anything at the White House.

"10 hour, 30 minutes and 10 seconds since I left the first set of messages to my parents and siblings." Aaron told her. He turned the volume down on the TV and stood up. "Did Seth tell you about-"

"The statement Kirkman wants to make tomorrow? Yes. He showed me the fist draft of the speech. We reviewed it together and ad some changes."

Aaron turned around and looked at her, "Emily! I'm Chief of Staff! That's my job!"

"I know," Emily didn't react to his hostile nature. She knew he wasn't thinking clearly "But The President sent you home this morning so I didn't think he'd appreciate it very much if you were helping out."

"I couldn't go home. At least here I'm pretending to do something," He shook his head. "Nadia hasn't heard from her parents or her sisters either. It's a mess in Texas and other states right now."

"I know, and we're already preparing food and aid to send out as soon as the worst part of the storm clears. "Emily reminded him. His usually gelled curly hair was dishelmed and he'd taken off his suit jacket. She'd never seen him look this worried or bad and she was worried about him.

"Emily, I'm not going to sit here and pretend my family isn't dead." He shook his head finally allowing himself to cry. "My hometown is underwater and the sixty miles per hour wind is blowing everything away! I mean, my school…. Places I grew up….."

Not knowing what else to do Emily knelt down and hugged him the best she could. They both knew, realistically the chance of any survival was very slim. Aaron's hometown was one of the poorest in the state of Texas. And as such the structures were very poorly bu9ild and marinated. It woukd be a miracle if people were able to survive that. On top of it all the residents were mostly illegal immigrants from Mexico and were afraid to go to shelters where rumour was they were checking to see if you were legalized. Nobody wanted to be deported. So they did the best they could with what they ha and tried to stay safe.

Aaron stood up and fell into Emily's waiting arms. He'd never felt so helpless in his life. The fact that he may never get to see his parents to his siblings again was eating him up inside. If they somehow got out of this mess he had promised himself he'd pay for the all to come to D.C. for a visit.

Watching the TV he almost felt as if he was going through the tragedy with his fellow Texans. He'd been in hurricane before, nasty ones too. But this one was the worst one in the history of the United States and one of the worst ones every recorded in the world. Relief centres were already jammed full and running out of supplies. And fast.

"Hey Man," Seth knocked on the walked into his best friend's office, "I found someone at the check in desk." He stepped aside to show Nadia. She looked just as worried as her older cousin. Her cell phone gripped tightly in her hands.

"Nadia," Aaron walked quickly over to her and engulfed her in a hug. He'd been on the phone with her a few times today but he'd never been so glad to actually see her. Nadia and him had always been very close. He considered her to be more like a littler sister then a cousin. Like him, she was very bright and had always had ambitions to get out of there small town. Growing up he'd held her with her homework and take her to places to Houston and Dallas to broaden her horizons. Places as a child he'd wished he'd been able to go too.

"My parents called me," Nadia didn't want to waste any time explained what she'd heard, "It was hard to make out but I think so far everyone's safe. I think they said something about your parents but I couldn't really make it out. It was really hard to hear. I'm sorry.

"That's alright," Aaron didn't want show how disappointed he was. He was, as well so glad Nadia's parents seemed to be safe. "Why don't you stay here with us? We can order in some food. You shouldn't be alone."

Nadia looked around the room, even after almost a year it still felt surreal that she was here. Involved in the runnings of the White House. The first time she'd met Emily and Seth she'd been blown away and a little star struck. Especially with Emily, She knew that sounded silly but Emily was one of the most powerful women in D.C. and talking to her was great. Nadia would love to be able to talk to her and get some input on things.

"I don't want to intrude. I don't have a high as clearance as you guys do."

"Then we won't talk about that," Emily spoke up, "You can tell us all about your job. I'd like to hear how things are going in Congress." Emily knew how important Nadia was to Aaron and so she wanted to make a very good impression on the younger woman. To be honest though it wasn't that hard. Nadia was bright and very likeable. Emily could see she was eager to lean and had potential to go far in this city.

"Congresswoman Yoshita is really helping a lot of people and getting things accomplished," Nadia smiled proudly, "I still can't thank Aaron enough for getting me the job."

"Well from what Aaron says you more then deserve it," Emily told her. "Should we just order some Chinese food? The usual place?" She looked at Aaron and Seth for conformation as they both nodded. "What about you Nadia?"

"That sounds good."

An hour later the food had arrived and Nadia and Aaron had almost forgotten about everything that was going on in there home state.

"Aaron, any word yet?" President Kirkman asked as he walked into the room. Everyone immediately standing up, "Please, please sit down." He turned and smiled at Nadia, "Nadia right. Aaron's cousin, you work for Congresswoman Yoshita." Kirkman walked towards Nadia with his hand out-stretched.

"Yes…yes sir…" Nadia tried to remind herself to talk as she shook the President's hand. She was blown away that he'd remember all of that. She'd only met him once before, and had said less then she was currently saying.

"Any word on your families yet?" He inquired.

"Nadia ha shear from her parents Sir," Aaron spoke for her cousin knowing she was still a little studded, "But I still haven't heard from my family, and unfortunately the damage is only getting worse."

"Let me know if there's anything I can do," Kirkman told them, "I'll let you get back to your dinner now. I didn't mean to interrupt."

"Not a problem Mr. President, Thank you," Aaron smiled as his boss left the room with his Secret Service Guards.

 **2 AM**

Aaron groggily opened his eyes as he reached in the dark for his cell phone. Turning on the lamp he grabbed the phone, "Go back to sleep," He leaned down to give Emily a quick kiss, "I'll let you know if its anything urgent."

Emily nodded her head and made a move to take her phone as well. "I haven't gotten any text messages yet," She said, "Hopefully is nothing to bad," She watched as Aaron left the bedroom.

"Aaron Shore," Aaron answered the phone running hand through his dark curls.

"Aaron."

"Mom," Aaron had never been so relieved to hear his mother's voice, "I'm so glad you're alright. How…how is everyone?" He wanted to get to things straight away. He knew the phone line could go out any minutes.

"I'm on a phone…I think they called it a Satellite phone…" His mother spoke in Spanish. "I can't hear you very well. And I'm not sure how much time I have. We're all okay. Everyone's a little scared an spooked but…" She began to cry and that's when Aaron knew something bad had happened, "Your brother Javier and your sister in-law… they didn't make it. They stayed behind to make sure everyone got out. You know how he was always helping everyone."

"Yeah," Aaron nodded his head. His oldest brother was like that. He always made sure everyone else was safe before he took care of himself. He'd always been like that. Aaron couldn't count the number of times he gave him the last piece of bread or made sure he did his homework and got good grades, even though h himself didn't make it past grade eleven, He always had high hopes for Aaron and he, more then anyone else was the one that pushed him to be something more, to leave the small town and go out into the world.

"Ramona and Elena…how are they?" Aaron dared to ask about his four and one year old nieces.

"They were with their parents but someone was able to rescue them and bring them here. Ramona's terrified and scared….but Elena she doesn't know what'd going on. She just wants her parents back."

Aaron shook his head and began to pace the room. He hated not being able to do more for his family. He was raised better then this; you do all you can for your family. But thousands of miles away there wasn't much he could do and he hated it.

"You need to take them. I know Javier put down you as their guardian if anything were to happen. And you're their Godfather. It's chaos here and they need a safe place to stay. Just until your father and I can be in temporary housing and are stable. We know you have a big career down there and this wouldn't work out for long term.

Aaron was silent for a minute as he tried to process what his other was saying. "You want me to bring Ramona and Elena to D.C? How would they even get here? All of the airports are shut down."

"In a few days when everything starts up again. There are people here who can help us out. Other people are getting kids out as well." She explained, "Please Aaron you should see them. They can't stay here they need to get away from here for a while.

"I need to think about it," Aaron wasn't prepared to give any answers yet. There was a lot to think about. He hardly knew anything about looking after children. Plus there was his job and Emily that he needed to think about as well. If he took on his nieces they he'd need to cut back at work. And he'd basically be ending his relationship with Emily; there was no way he could as her to take on two young girls.

"There's a long wait for the phone. I'll call you in two days." His mother said and then the call cut out, leaving Aaron in silence and stunned.

 **TBC**

* * *

 **A\N:** So, what;s going to happen? Is Aaron going to take his nieces in?


	2. Chapter 2

**A\N** : Thank you so much to everyone who read and reviewed the first chapter I'm so glad you liked it. A special thank you to my new beta reader who helped me so much with this chapter. She even wrote one part for me.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own anything.

 **Spoilers:** None

 **Warinings:** None

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

Emily walked into the living room and stood there still to watch Aaron. He was pacing the room and looked really generally upset. She wanted to help him but she wasn't sure if he needed to be left alone at the moment. It was clear by his body language that he was upset.

Knowing Emily was watching him Aaron turned around. "My Mom-" he collected himself trying to get his words right although he couldn't find the words. "My parents, oldest sister, younger sister and all their families are okay. But my brother Javier and his wife died. They have a fifteen month old daughter and a daughter who turned 4 last week."

"Oh Aaron," Emily was at a loss for words. And that was a first. In her job you always had to know what to say. But this was different, this wasn't professional, it was personal. Walking towards Aaron Emily wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. Aaron knew he needed to tell her, even though he was at a loss for words what to say, they weren't dating that long how would she react. He knew he had to find the words though. "My mother asked if I could take them in. I'm their godfather."

"What are you going to do?" Emily asked shocked.

"I'm not sure. I'm not that good with kids and I wouldn't have any time for them. But I know that my parents expect me too. I was raised to put family first." Aaron ran a hand over his face and then went into the kitchen to get a beer. There was no way he was going to be able to get back to sleep after everything that happened tonight, he needed to put his thoughts in order, he wasn't sure what was going to happen in his life, would Emily want this? He couldn't choose between her and his family. He was scared she was going to flee.

Emily sat down looking at the turned off TV ahead of her, not really watching anything. This was insane, she wasn't sure what to do, what to say, how could she comfort Aaron in this difficult time? She loved him that's for sure but was she ready to practically be a mother to those two kids? They were babies 15 months and 4 years old were babies. She had to talk to someone but to whom? It was 3 in the morning, the only person who would be able to help her was asleep, she couldn't worry Alex at this hour, she took a deep breath and walked to the kitchen, she was hesitant walking towards the kitchen looking for the words or the actions to help him.

Aaron was sitting at the table looking ahead the bear in front of him unopened; he looked so lost, so different than the man she knows in all of those months.

"Aaron." She called his name softly, he didn't react, she knew he heard her; she walked towards him and placed her hand on his shoulder. "We'll get through this, no matter what." She didn't know why she said this, in her head she wasn't sure that they'd get through this.

"You have to talk to the president I'm sure that he's going to understand if you want some time off."

He turned and looked at her his eyes were red, he was trying so hard to keep his tears in check, "I… I just need some time." He said, she knew that he meant time alone, "I'll be going back upstairs." He didn't answer her, at least not verbally; the small sad crooked smile on his face was all she needed. She turned around and walked towards the bedroom, everything had turned upside down in just few minutes.

* * *

Emily arrived at the White House a little before six thirty. After Aaron's mother had called the previous night she knew he needed to be left alone. After he went upstairs she left a quick note and left going back to her apartment. She got a quick shower and a short rest and got ready for work.

All night long she couldn't help but think what Aaron was going to do, what she wanted him to do. She didn't even know if she wanted kids of her own, let alone raising two girls that had gone through something no adult could ever deal with. The hours of both of their jobs meant that Aaron's nieces would either get to see them very little or one of them would have to cut back hours. Emily knew that it would probably be Aaron, which led her to have two thoughts. The workaholic side of her knew that that if Aaron did take the girls in he might resign and she could get his job. The side that loved Aaron couldn't see any way she'd be happy without him in her life.

She was completely torn. She knew taking in two young girls was a horrible idea but losing Aaron was not an option. She needed to be one hundred percent sure though as she knew backing out in a few months, after the girls had grown attached to her was not a good idea.

So she found herself sitting across from the one person in the world that would understand. And after explaining the events that took place a few hours ago Alex Kirkman sat momentary silent.

"Wow," Alex finally let out a breath, "How old are the girls? You didn't say their ages."

"Sixteen months and four, I think," Emily wasn't too concerned about that. No matter what was ages were she knew it was too young. "I don't even know if the older one should be in school."

"Mommy," Penny Kirkman walked into the First Family Living Area yawning, "Is Daddy okay? Why is Emily here?" Penny knew her father's Special Advisor didn't come over and visit all time.

"No, everything's alright sweetie," Alex assured her nine-year-old daughter. "Come tell Emily about your school."

Penny wondered why Emily wanted to know about that but she didn't want to pass up an opportunity to talk to her. She loved Emily. "It's great. But I only really have one friend, her names Alana. Alana's younger sister is going to be in Junior Kindergarten this year and she said sometimes we can go and see her play."

Emily gave Alex a side eye glance before looking back at Penny, "How old is Alana's younger sister?"

"She's four. I like her but she can be annoying. I asked Mommy once why I couldn't have a younger sister and she gave me a funny look" Penny added as she laughed, "Can I go back to sleep now?"

"Of course you can!" Alex forgot how early it was for her daughter especially since it was still summer time, "You go back to bed," She said smiling as she watched her daughter leave.

"I don't even know what Aaron's going to decide," Emily spoke before Alex had the chance too. "And I really don't think I'd be a good mother."

"I think Aaron's going to take them in. Between you and me he's speaking to Tom right now." Alex said the old all knowing smirk on her face

Emily ran a hand over her face and sighed, "I don't want to lose him, But…"

"For what it's worth Em, I think you'd make a great mother," Alex smiled at her. "And most parents don't know what they're doing at first so it's okay to be scared."

"Parent?" Emily shuddered at the word, "I don't know. I mean the four year old isn't going to be easy. She's going to know what happened to her parents. Besides with the hours Aaron and I work… and…." Alex raised her hand to stop Emily's rumbling

"Alright," Alex knew how stubborn Emily could be, "Wait until you talk to Aaron. But in the meantime I'm going to see what I can do about us going out shopping. Kids need a lot of things."

"Alex-" Emily tried to protest this was one of her fears when she came to Alex, and it was materializing right in front of her eyes

"You should know better by now then to not trust me." Alex gave her a crooked smile and led her to the door "Off you go, back to work, the free world isn't going to run itself" the older woman gave her another hug and pushed her gently out the door. Emily took a deep breath, she knew Alex was right and she wasn't going to question her on that. Gathering her wits she started walking to the west wing. The free world wasn't going to run itself after all.

* * *

Tom knew something wasn't right when he saw Aaron coming unannounced in his office before 9AM. They had a meeting scheduled for later, if he was coming in so much earlier than his day just became harder, when Aaron reaches closer to his desk Tom notices, to his horror, how exhausted his chief of staff really looks, his eyes are dull and dark circles have formed under them.

"Aaron, you look exhausted, please take a seat." Tom says getting up from his desk and walking towards the younger man.

"Thank you sir." Aaron responds as soon as he sits down. Everything happening right now is giving him a terrible headache, and quite frankly he isn't sure how to begin he is so thankful when the president starts the conversation.

"Did something happen to your family Aaron?" Aaron raises his eyes and looks at the president's worried face.

"All of my family is safe… all expect my brother and sister in law… they became trapped in their house and when the rescue came it was too late… for them."

"I am so sorry for your loss Aaron. Did they have any kids?"

Aaron takes a deep breath, running his hand through his hair. "Actually sir, that's what I came to talk to you for. My brother had two daughters, Ramona is four and Elena is fifteen months old; they'll be coming to live with me… at least for a while." He adds hesitantly, he didn't know how the president would react to him getting two highly traumatized kids under his wings.

"Have you told Emily?" he asks, looking at Aaron over his thick glasses. Aaron's uncomfortable body posture told Tom all he needed to know. "I guess not." He stands up; Aaron follows his boss with his eyes. "Look Aaron I'll be straight with you, you don't have to worry about this place so much, at this time your family comes first, you can take as much time off as you need, your deputy will handle everything just fine, all I ask is you speak to Emily, she's like a daughter to me last thing I need is to see her hurt."

Aaron nods and for the first time in over a day a small smile forms on his lips. "Thank you sir, will do that straight away." Aaron gets up to leave, but Tom's voice stops him again

"When are you flying down to Texas to get them?" he asks,

Aaron stands there frozen "I… I don't know sir, probably by next week."

Tom nods and walks to his desk standing behind the resolute desk he looks at Aaron for a moment, before finally talking again. "I am visiting the victims of the hurricane next Monday, you and Emily will come with me to get the girls then. It's not up for a debate Aaron!" he cuts him off before Aaron has a chance to complain about it. "Get back to work." Aaron turns around to leave, from the corner of his eye he things he seems Kirkman smirking but it could be his imagination.

Walking towards Emily's office Aaron couldn't help but think how his life was changing at such a rapid pace. He had just agreed to take in his young nieces and now he might lose the only woman he ever truly loved. Sure, he'd been in love before but no woman ever really understood him as much as Emily did. She made him a better man and when they were together in bed it was incredible. It was as though their bodies were made for each other. And although Aaron knew he was doing the right thing by looking after his nieces he was heartbroken about Emily he wished she would understand why he had to do it but he was ready to let her go if she didn't, he couldn't blame her.

"Em?" Aaron knocked then walked into Emily's office, "I've-"Aaron stopped turning towards the TV and turned it off. He proceeded to walk towards her desk, "I've decided I'm going to have Ramona and Elena come and live with me. I thought about it all night long but it's something I need to do. Javi,"a few tears escaped his eyes although he was trying hard not to break down thinking of his older brother"He did so much for me when I was younger. He believed that I would be the one to get out of that town and he made sure I worked hard. He loved me and helped me as much as he could and I really miss him. We used to text all the time, talk about family and basketball. He'd tell me about what was going on back home and I'd tell him as much as I could about work. I told him about you too and he said you sounded like the perfect woman to keep me in line," He chuckled a little, not seeing the tears threatening to escape Emily's eyes. "So I owe it to him to look after his daughters."

Emily stood up from her desk and walked over to where Aaron was sitting. She sat down beside him and took his hands in hers, "I know, and I think you're doing the right thing." She gave his hands a reassuring squeeze, "Those girls are going to be lucky to have you."

Aaron nodded, he knew this was coming, "I'm sorry Emily." He couldn't meet her eyes. "I love you. I know all of this is too much and-"

"I didn't say that," Emily began. She wasn't really sure what she was saying. For once her heart seemed to be doing all of the talking, "It's not going to be easy but I know how much you love Ramona and Elena. I'll be here for you Aaron. I'm not going anywhere. And I love you too," She added a small sad smile formed on her lips.

Aaron turned and kissed her. She had just made him incredibly happy and he was so relieved. Once their lips had broken apart he looked at her, "Are you sure? You know I don't expect you to help right?"

"Believe me Aaron I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't want to," She assured him, "In fact Alex said she wanted to go shopping for them. If I can get out of here early for once maybe that can happen."

Aaron looked sat her completely stunned. He'd never expected Emily Rhodes of all people to be this maternal. He had his suspicions that the First Lady was pilling the puppet strings but seeing Emily act like this was defiantly turning him on.

"Yeah… I can get you their sizes for clothes," He nodded trying to stay focused, "I have them from when I sent Ramona a few birthday presents. I sent Elena a toy and an outfit as well." He loaded up a note he made on his phone, "I'll text it to you. I'll pay you back for everything you buy. Ramona loves dolls and last time I talked to Javi she was playing 'kitchen'. Elena's fifteen months old so she just needs some baby toys maybe a few that will help her improve her walking skills. Spanish is there first language so if there are some educational toys that'll help them learn English that would be good.

"Alright and you don't need too," Emily assured him, "But I doubt I'll be paying for much anyways." She had a feeling Alex would insist on buying everything for them.

"Well-"Aaron wasn't sure how to deal with that so he just sighed and looked at Emily. She knew the Kirkmans much better than he did. "I'll let you talk to Mrs. Kirkman about that."

Laughing Emily looked at her phone and saw she had received a text message from Alex. She'd arranged for them to go shopping in an hour. "I'm going to go and talk to the President. Want me to come over to your place tonight?"

"Sure. I'm going to go brief William on the things he'll need to do when I'm away. Then I'm going to head out. I'm going to stop by Nadia's office too and then maybe try and reach my parents."

"Great," Emily nodded her head. "I'll meet you back at your apartment later tonight," She smirked and gave him a slow kiss before pulling away. "And make sure you still have your suspenders on," She added as she grabbed her phone and walked out of her office leaving Aaron stunned and wanting more.

* * *

Looking around the isle of the toy store Emily felt a severe headace coming on. Every possible toy was in a bright shade of pink. She felt a surge of anger come on and gripped the shopping cart tighter. "No way I'm I buying anything that pink for anybody, especially a little girl. Is there a reason all the girl toys are pink and all the boy toys are blue? I played with cars with my brothers growing up. I'm sure I played with dolls too but I sure as heck don't remember all the toys to have been this pink. No wonder fewer girls are going into sciences if this is what they're told to play with. Remind me to research any legislation regarding girls' toys and education." Emily ranted moving ahead.

Alex smirked but didn't say anything. She knew better than to say anything when Emily was going on a rant. In a way she knew they younger woman was right. Most of the toys for girls were pink, Especially toys for young girls.

"Pink blocks!" Emily raised her voice and her hands as she looked at the product in digest, "Why can't girls play with regular blocks? I'm not going to get Ramona or Elena anything like this." She said turning her head away from the offending object.

"You should get them a few dolls," Alex pointed out, "Especially if that's what they're used to playing with. I'm sure after a few weeks hanging around with you they'll be carrying around a cell phone and drafting bills." Emily turned around and saw Alex looking at her with a crocked smirk on her face that was usually reserved for teasing her husband.

Emily smiled a little. A part of her liked that idea, as scary as it was, "Well Ramona anyways," She picked up one of the baby dolls and looked at it. "I'll let you look at this. I'm going to go and get some other toys. This isle is giving me a headache." She declared as she went to look at education toys. On her way she saw some superhero dolls for girls and stopped. If Ramona had to play with dolls she'd prefer them being superhero's. Plus she knew Seth would get a kick out of it. She got a Supergirl and Batgirl doll as well as a Black Widow one. She liked to think that these dolls would make Ramona think she could do anything. Especially since Black Widow wasn't a superhero but instead a train assassin. She laughed at that as she pictured Ramona wanting to meet Hannah, Making her way over to the area where the Infant toys were she picked up a few walking toys, teething toys and some other for Elena.

"I got Ramona two dolls, some doll clothes and a set that comes with a doll, stroller and high-chair. I also got her a dress up trunk with some princess costumes," Alex pushed her cart to meet up with Emily. "I see you've been busy," She grinned looking in Emily's cart, "Now all that we need from here is the Leapfrog I was telling you about for Ramona. Penny had one when she was younger and it was great. They're more high-tech now though, they look like an I-pad but they're completely safe. They help with reading, writing skills and even STEM skills," Alex added knowing that Emily would like that.

"If it'll help her…" Emily wasn't sure about giving a four year old a tablet to use, "What does it come with?"

"I'm not sure lets go and have a look," Alex led her towards where the electronic toys were, "We only have another half an hour here before they re-opened the store," She reminded Emily as they went. Since Secret Service was so worried about the dangers of her going out in large public places they were able to shut down three stores in hourly time blocks for her and Emily to go shopping. After this store they had two others to go to.

Emily picked up the latest version of the Leapfrog the store had out for demonstration. She played with it a little and opened some of the apps and looked at the books. She wasn't sure how much English Ramona knew but she was sure this would help her out. It would be very hard for her to adjust to always speaking English instead of Spanish. "Well it's better than giving her an actual I-pad that's for sure," Emily mused. She selected one with a green case and put it in her cart. "Now we just need a stroller and car sears right?"

"Ramona needs a booster seat not a car seat," Alex corrected her, "But yes."

Making their way over to where the strollers were Emily sighed out. There were many different kinds and she wasn't sure what the difference was between all of them. "Ramona wouldn't need to go in a stroller would she?"

"Nor for shorts rides but if you take them anywhere thatmight involve a lot of walking she might need something." Alex went to one stroller, "This one would be good. It has a spot for Elena to sit and Ramona can stand on the back platform holding on."

Emily pushed the stroller and examined it, "Would standing on this be safe?" She wondered as she looked at it, "What if she jumps off?"

"We'll someone would be pushing it and you could stop her," Alex pointed out, Emily couldn't help but notice the amusement in Alex's voice "But there are ones like this that has the older child sitting"

For the next twenty minutes Emily looked at a handful of different strollers, and after talking it through with Alex she decided on the first one she suggested. The secret service agents loaded everything up in the SUVs before the continued their shopping trip to IKEA

"So we need lots of things here," Emily said looking around the children's department, She'd only need to IKEA a handful of times but she had to say it was weird seeing it completely empty. "Why don't we get a crib for Elena first?"

"Alright," Alex nodded as they went to go look at cribs. They selected a matching black crib and changing table set as well as a high chair and some baby cups, bowls, utensils and a drawer for clothes as well as wall storage for toys and books. Emily also got some wooden toys, because Alex had suggested that they tent to last longer than plastic ones. She wrote down the information for the crib and changing table so they could arrange to have them delivered.

"I really hope they can deliver them before Monday," Emily said. Alex had mentioned to her that Tom had insisted Aaron and Emily go with them on their trip to Houston and get the girls. That was in six days, and didn't give them a lot of time to get things organized.

"I'm sure we'll be able to arrange something." Alex told her as they counted into the area for older children.

"This bed seems practical," Emily looked at one bed, that according to its description could be flipped upside down for a loft style bed as they child got older. "The ceiling's in Aaron's spare bedrooms are high so this could work." Alex inspected the bed Emily was showing her **.**

"Alright," Alex nodded her head, "Now we just need a toy storage system, a closet and drawers for clothes."

"These look good," Emily saw some bins that went into a wooden unit. "And this for a closet **?"** she showed a cute wall storage system.

"You said Ramona loved to play kitchen right?" Alex asked her,

"Yeah, that's what Aaron said" she said turning around towards where Alex was

"Then this will be good," Alex pointed out a wooden toy kitchen, "And we could get some wooden food, plates and pots and pans to go with it."

"This looks good," Emily smiled as she tried to picture Ramona playing with it. Aaron had shown her pictures of Ramona and Elena before so she knew what they looked like. Ramona had thick black curly hair and her facial features were similar to Aaron's, although her skin tone was a bit darker then his. Elena had straight dark brown hair and bright brown eyes that apparently lit up when she laughed.

After arranging for things to be delivered on Friday Emily and Alex went to a large clothing store and got a bunch of different clothes for the girls. As well as the usual things they also got them each a formal dress just in case there was an occasion for them to wear it. Which given the nature of Emily and Aaron's job would be a good possibility.

Emily and Alex arrived at Aaron's condo just after two o'clock each carrying some bags of things, Secret Service agents insisting on carrying the most. Emily texted Aaron Ahead of time to let them know they were coming so he wouldn't be to surprised,

Looking at all of the bags he smiled and nodded at the Secret Service agents, "I could have helped carried some of this."

"It's not a problem Mr. Shore," One of them commented,

"You get to put together the crib, bed and all of the furniture on Saturday with Seth," Emily told him laughing, "Kendra and I are going to take pictures and videos of that."

"You better not," Aaron warned laughing a little bit more. He was terrified of all of this happening so fast but knowing he has so much support was making him feel better. Especially knowing Emily was going to be helping him made him feel a lot better.

"Thanks again Alex," Emily turned to her friend and smiled sincerely, "Really you've been a huge help. I wouldn't have known what to get if it wasn't for you."

"You sell yourself short Em. But I do think you should tell Aaron about you rant in the girls doll isle." Alex had a big smile on her face, one that brought a chill of terror down Aaron's spine.

"Oh boy," Aaron rolled his eyes. He could only imagine what Emily had to say about all of the pink toys for girls. There were few things that really got Emily Rhodes riled up; the concept of Halloween, Woman's issues and unfair treatment of anybody. "What did she do?"

"Never mind," Emily looked at him knowing he wouldn't let it go, "I got Ramona and Elena a few dolls but I also got them some other things too. Educational toys, some LEGO's and books."

"Well kids need a variety of toys to play with," Aaron pointed outlooking lost at all the bags around him.

"Alright," Alex hugged Emily, "I'll go now. I don't want to see either of you in the West Wing for the rest of the week. You have a lot of things to do here." She warned them.

"Yes Ma'am," Aaron nodded, "I'm pretty sure the President told the guards at all entrances not to let me in," He joked, "Bur seriously thank you so much." He added.

"Anytime Aaron," Alex said and the turned to leave. She stopped for a moment at the door and turned around to the couple standing there "And you better tape Saturday!" She said smiling at them. Aaron groaned but Emily could see a smile forming slowly on his lips.

Emily walked over to Aaron and kissed him, causing him o back into the wall, "Thank you for keeping your suspenders on," She whispered in his ear as she ran her hands underneath them.

"Emily," Aaron groaned out as he started kissing her neck and sucking on it. In a surprise move he lifted her up into his arms, "Let's continue this upstairs."

 **TBC**

* * *

 **A\N:** So, what did you think? Will Aaron and Emily be able to handle looking after Ramona and Elena?


	3. Chapter 3

**A\N:** I owe a **HUGE** thank you to my beta reader for editing this chapter for me and for my new friend on this new friend from this site has been talking to me for over a week about everything Designated Survivor and fan fiction. She's helped me out so much with this story and with others as well. She was even nice enough to write in the part with Aaron talking to Nadia in this chapter.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own anything.

 **Spoilers:** None

 **Warinings:** None

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

Using the key Aaron had given her the previous night Emily walked into his condo. She had been spending a lot of time there and had run out of clothes so she had gone back to her apartment for the night. She hated to admit it to herself but she hadn't gotten good night's sleep at all. She was used to sleeping with Aaron, in Aaron's bed that her bed felt so unfamiliar.

"Hey," Emily walked through the short hallway and into the living area. With CNN on mute on the TV set Aaron was hammering something on the hall where the bookshelf used to be. "What are you doing?"

Aaron stopped what he was doing and turned to look at his girlfriend. She was wearing a pair of jean shorts and a purple t-shirt. After being used to seeing her in work clothes it was nice seeing her wear casual clothes on the few days off they had. "I'm securing everything to the walls. Toddlers like to climb and I don't want Elena getting hurt. I put baby proof locks on all of the cabinets and set up baby gates at the top and bottom of the stairs. I know it's early but sometimes they can be tricky. So I'd rather get used to them now. That reminds me…" He turned to look at her. "We should talk about what's going to happen once Ramona and Elena are here."

"Alright," Emily sat down on the couch. She wasn't sure what there was to talk about. She had already said she'd help out as much as she could.

Sitting beside her Aaron took a deep breath, "Ramona and Elena are my nieces so I know they are my responsibility. I'm going to take next week off to get them settled in. I need to find a nanny and an Elementary school for Ramona." His breathing started picking up and he stopped to take a couple deep breaths **. "** What I mean is…. You don't have to move in here or anything or help out a lot if you-"

"Aaron," Emily held out her hand to stop him, "I endured a pink toy store aisle full of horrible toys. Trust me I want to help out," She let out a chuckle before getting serious, "My father walked out my mother and I when I was six and I never heard from him again. Not having a father figure growing up was hard. I don't want Ramona and Elena growing up without someone," She wasn't sure if she was ready to use the term 'mother figure' yet.

"They couldn't have a better woman to look up to," Aaron kissed her gently on the lips. He loved seeing this more maternal side of her. He never would have guessed she had it in her but he can see it now that she'd be a great mother. He hoped in a few years if everything went well that they'd be able to have their own children in addition to his nieces.

"I don't know about that. I was frustrated and disgusted over the lack of appropriate toys at the stores Alex and I went to so I went online. It turns out there's a website that has empowering toys, clothes and books for girls. So I ordered a bunch of things, President and Vice President Barbie dolls, some picture books about politics plus the White Houseand some Superhero toys." She looked so exited talking about what she bought that made Aaron smile.

"Oh boy," Aaron shook his head and laughed not capable to keep it back any longer, "If you have it your way Ramona will skip school and go right to becoming Vice President, or President, even better right Em?"

"I want her to believe she can be anything,what's so wrong with that?" Emily looked at him, Aaron didn't have anything else to say, he wanted the girls to think they can be and do anything as well "Now what do you need help with?

Two and a half hours later Aaron and Emily had finished securing all of the furniture and baby proofing things. Getting some ice cream from the freezer Emily sat down beside Aaron on the couch. He had just put on CNN and Seth was just about to start his press conference. Even though they weren't allowed at the White House they still knew they needed to keep up to date with everything that was going on.

Aaron had his cell phone in his had, scrolling through the breaking news. The crisis about the statue removal in Charlottesville, as well as a Hurricane going to hit Florida in the coming days were of most interest to him. He turned to look at Emily to talk to her but forget what he was about to say. Seeing her lick ice cream off of a spoon was driving him crazy and making him very hard.

"I didn't know you liked ice cream," Aaron tried to gather some composure. "But I'm all for you liking it," He added as he moved closer to her, pulling her into him. He kissed her hair and smiled into it. He was starting to not be able to imagine life without her.

"I had a craving for chocolate ice cream," Emily shrugged in response, "I'm glad you have some otherwise I would have had to go and get some. I usually don't eat ice cream. But it is summer," She pointed out, "So it makes sense. I'm used to working all the time. I didn't have time to eat it before."

"Like I said I have absolutely no objections," Aaron kissed the side of her head once again and pulled her in closer to him. "Seth's presser is about to start," He turned up the volume on the TV. They listned to the press conference. Afterword's Aaron called Seth, putting it on speakerphone

"Hey Man," Seth greeted, "How's everything going? You still need help on Saturday to help put everything together?"

"Yeah," Aaron nodded, "What's going on with the situation in Charlottesville? Anything I should know about?"

"I'm under orders not to tell you to much," Seth admitted, "But your deputy is doing well."

"I'm not sure if that makes me feel better," Aaron joked. He knew that the President would never fire him but he did miss going to work. He was used to never getting home and now he was doing the complete opposite. In taking in his nieces he'd have to ensure he didn't spend to many hours at the office. Even if they did have a nanny he still wanted to be there for him.

"Don't worry Man, anyways I need to go. Say hi to Em for me."

"Hi Seth," Emily laughed, "You're on speaker phone,' She added.

"It's a good thing we didn't talk about anything private," He said as he hanged up the phone.

"So…." Emily put her empty bowl on the coffe table and crawled on top of Aaron and straddled him, "You like it when I eat ice cream." She kissed him.

* * *

On Saturday morning, Aaron, Emily, Seth, Kendra Lyor and Aaron's cousin Nadia were standing in the living room of Aaron's condo. Yesterday fifteen boxes had been delivered from IKEA and other stores. All of the things needed to be put together with varying degrees of complicity. After they had arrived Aaron and Emily had put each box in the room they needed to be in to avoid things getting to mixed up.

"We should probably split up and each take a room," Aaron suggested. He didn't want to tell his friends what to do, since they weren't at work. However he'd always been a natural born leader. "Nadia and I can take Elena's room," He looked at his cousin who smiled and nodded in agreement. She didn't know anyone else expect Emily so he figured she'd be most comfortable working with him.

"Kendra and I can look after Ramona's room I guess," Seth said, "Is that okay?"

"Yeah sure," Kendra shrugged her shoulders. "What are Emily and Lyor going to do?"

"Well I can help anyone that needs help," Emily told them, "But I'll mostly be filming. This is going to be hilarious and I did promise Alex I'd get a video for her.'

"You did what?" Kendra turned her head and looked at her friend in total shock, "Why did you promise the First Lady something like that?" She had to admit that sometimes she was a little jealous of the friendship Emily had with the First Lady. She was the only one within the staff that felt comfortable enough, or was even allowed to call her by her first name. Even Aaron, who was the President's Chief of Staff called her Mrs. Kirkman. Kendra knew though that this friendship was because of the fact Emily worked for the President when he was still HUD sectary.

"I know," Aaron sighed looking at his girlfriend, "You better not show that video to anyone else at work. Or for that matter show it to anyone when we go to Houston."

"Oh that's a good idea," Emily smiled, "I'll email it to the entire staff and show it to your parents and siblings." She said gleefully.

"Emily! Aaron reached for his girlfriend's cell phone but she was too quick and pulled it away.

"You wouldn't want to disobey the First Lady now would you?" She eyed Aaron. Seeing him back away she smirked. "I didn't think so."

"She's good," Nadia pointed out. Nadia didn't know Emily that well but she was hoping that would change. "No sense in arguing with her," Nadia tugged Aaron's arm to pull him up the stairs where Seth and Kendra were also walking.

Emily and Aaron had given Elena the smaller of the two spate bedrooms. Although it was still bigger than in most apartment. The boxes that contained Elena's crib, changing table, dresser, bookcase and storage were in the centre of the bare coloured room.

It was five o'clock when everyone had finished getting everything set up. When everyone had left Aaron peered over Emily's shoulder. She was editing the footage she had taken and laughing.

"You know you have an evil side in you," He pointed out. "Probably why you do so well in politics."

"Shut up!" Emily elbowed him in the stomach, "You don't want this to end up in every White House email box do you?"

"You're so lucky I love you." Aaron gave her a kiss on the lips, "You sure its alright for me to come to dinner with your mother?"

"Yes! I want you to meet her. Especially since Ramona and Elena are going to be here. We've been dating for five months it's about time you met." She turned to look up at him, "You solve world problem every day at work and you're telling me you're scared of meeting my mother?"

"I'm not scared," Aaron tried to defend himself, "but you have to admit it's not an ideal situation for us to meet. Is she going to be okay with Ramona and Elena coming?"

"I don't know," Emily shrugged, "But I'm pretty sure she likes you. I mean she knows all about you."

"Alright then, I'll go and get ready to go," He walked towards the stairs. Since he had been putting furniture together all day he needed to change his clothes.

* * *

Sandra Rhodes looked at Aaron and Emily not quite sure how to react to what she had just heard. Their dinner hadn't even come yet and they had already explained how Aaron would be taking in his young nieces. She had a feq questions, how would they maange it with their careers? How did Emily fit into all of this? Emily had never said she wanted children. Since she was more career driven it made sense she focused more on her career. Emily doing this though just made Sandra realize how much Emily must love Aaron. She could see it in her daughter's eyes, when she talked or looked at Aaron. But seeing her make that kind of commitment only furthered her belif that she's just been introduced to her future son in-law.

"Well when Emily's committed to something she stays with it. So that's good because I don't' think this is going to be easy. No matter how sweet these little girls are they're going to be pretty scared for a few weeks. So they're going to need lots of stability."

"Yeah," Aaron nodded. I'm hoping to find a good nanny for them. We're going to Houston on Monday with the President and First Lady to get them and starting on Tuesday I have a week off. I asked the First Lady for the agency they used for the First Daughter's nanny."

"Well that's good." Sandra told them, "If you need any help though I can always come and help. I'm sure Emily told you I'm a third grade teacher. But I've worked with all kinds of children so feel free to call me. "

When Emily and Aaron were leaving the restaurant Emily couldn't stop thinking about what her mother had said. She had known taking on the girls was going to be a commitment but she'd never found it so real and scary before. She wasn't sure if she really wanted to do this anymore and she needed to take a break. She also needed a big glass of wine. The thought of going back to Aaron's condo with him terrified her so she decided to call a taxi and go back to her apartment,

"I have some things I need to do at my apartment tomorrow… so I'm going to go back there tonight," Emily turned to look at Aaron as they got closer to his car. He hoped it sounded believable. The last thing she wanted was for him to start asking questions.

"Yeah sure. Just…" He took her hands, "I was thinking that maybe we should think about you moving in with me. I mean it might made Ramona and Elena feel better and…"

"Aaron…" Emily withdrew her hands and turned quickly around to leave.

* * *

Aaron hadn't really slept that night. It was only the second time in months that Emily hadn't slept beside him. He had thought a lot about what had happened the previous night and still couldn't figure it out. He had thought everything had gone very well her mother, yet as soon as he mentioned the possibility of her moving in she ran away. Was she having a mental breakdown? Did she want to break up? He had called her a bunch of times and let messages and texts. But he had not heard back from her.

Needing he clear his mind he put on a t-shirt an sweat pant and went to the park for a run. The mixture of listening to music and running seemed to cleat his head. That and the fact he had run further then he had in a very long time. When he was sitting on a bench trying to catch his breath his cell phone rang. He answered it quickly hoping to would be Emily.

"Aaron Shore," He picked up the phone trying to sound less out of breath.

"Hola primo, how are you doing?" Nadia answered. How did dinner with Emily's mother go?"

"I could be better," Aaron responded honestly.

"Are you having second thoughts about the girls? Or did dinner with Emily's mother not go well?"

"I thought dinner went alright but Emily took off after. I mentioned we might want to think about her moving in with me. I think it freaked her out. I don't know if she's having second thoughts about the girls too.

"Oh….Aaron," Nadia sighed, "Is that why you're having second thoughts about Ramona and Elena?"

Standing up Aaron began to pace the walkway; he couldn't sit still, not when he had so much on his mind. "Yes and no… I mean yes of course, I would hate myself a lot if getting one thing meant loosing another. Maybe I'm not ready for this, I mean I'm going to be with them tomorrow and I have no idea how they're going to react. I don't know them at all, I don't have a clue about what I'm supposed to do or how I'm supposed to do, or how I'm supposed to raise them. I'm not sire this is what Jose wanted when he made me godfather. "

"Aaron, you know you're doing the right them. Jose loved you and he knew that even though you have crazy hours and your life is a mess you love your family. You're going to know what do when you see those girls. You were always so good with the younger cousins, especially me. And I'm sure Emily will come around, I've seen the way she looks at you. She's not freaking out because she wants to leave you. She's freaking out because you've only been together a few months, anyone would freak out.

"Thanks Nadia, I'll text you tomorrow to let you know how everything goes."

"Alright," Nadia said and hung up. "Good luck."

"It was funny to see how Nadia always had the words. In a way she had always been more of a sister then a cousin to him. He would always be thankful she was in his life." With that thought in his head he ran back to his condo. His legs hurting mote then then they ever had before. He ahd just gotten back inside when his phinr rang again.

"Aaron Shore."

"Hi Aaron,"

"Mrs. Kirkman, what can I do for you?"

"I got the information you wanted for the nanny agency. I was thinking you could come over and get it. I have a registration package for Millard's Academy as well."

"Ma'am that's…" Aaron didn't know how to explain he couldn't; afford the prestige academy the First Children both attended.

"I was able to get Ramona a scholarship because she's been through so much. Just come by and see the package." Alex suggested.

"Yes Ma'am I'll be there in an hour," Aaron said and waited for the first lady to respond before hanging up the phone.

* * *

Emily's desk was covered in paperwork; her assistant could only do so much as most of her work involved sensitive highly classified material. After she had left Aaron at the restaurant she had went home but hadn't had a good nights sleep. She just couldn't decide on what she really wanted to do. After realizing she needed to get her mind of everything she'd come to the West Wing. Despite the President's warning about taking some time off she'd been able to gain entry. She explained to the guards that she just needed to get some paperwork. That had been five hours ago. She figured by now that Tom and Alex were aware she was here.

She couldn't concentrate on work though, she kept thinking of Aaron and everything that was going on with them. She understood why he wanted a commitment from her but she was so torn. She loved her job and didn't want to take to much time off. She'd always been so sure she didn't want kids. She'd never imaged she'd find a man who not only understood her long hours but had them to. Those long hours were going to be tricky though with two young girls waiting at home for them. Plus, she knew that if she made the commitment she and Aaron would eventually get engaged, married and have kids of their own. Running a hand over her face she heard a knock on the door.

"Come in."

"Hi Emily," Penny waved happily as she entered the room carrying a bag while one of her secret service guards carrying a bigger one, "My Mom told me to bring this to Aaron. I couldn't find him though so I came here." She put her bag down and sat on the couch. She looked up at Emily and smiled, "I can't wait until Ramoma and Elena get here. Mom said Ramona's going to my school."

"Wait-" Emily held up her hand and shook her head. The last time she checked Aaron still hadn't found a school for Ramona. There was also the fact that Penny's school, while one of the best schools in the country was also one of the most expensive. There was no way Aaron would be able to afford it, "You can just put that down. She's alright in here," Emily looked at the secret service agent.

"I'll be outside." The agent dropped the bag and left the room. He knew that Penny was allowed to be along with the senior staff members, all of them knee and adored her.

"There's some clothes and some uniforms for Ramona in here," Penny got down on the floor and began going through the bag, "This is my old jumper. I didn't want to give it away. It doesn't fit me now," She handed over the small maroon jumper and a white long sleeve t-shirt. "Kindergarten's can wear any of the uniforms but not the kilt. The kilt is just for middle and high school," Penny explained, "Will Ramona and Elena be here a lot? Mom said I can play with them, I hope they like all of my dolls."

"Uh yeah…." Emily nodded her head still a little bit confused as to what was going on. Especially the part about how Alex knew she was in her office. "Did your Mom or Dad talk to Aaron sweetie?"

Penny shrugged her shoulders as she reached for the bag she was carrying, "I think my Mom gave him some information on my school. Like pictures or a registration package," She took out the contents of the bag, which included LEGO blocks some books and a board game, "Mom said that you and Aaron can keep these in your office if you want to. I can't wait to paly this with Ramona. Does she like science as much as I do? My Mom said they speak Spanish but might understand English."

"I'm not sure Penny but I'm sure Ramona will love playing with you. Elena is still very little, I'm not even sure if she's walking yet," Emily felt horrible with what little information she could provide to the nine year old. She was clearly so excited about getting to meet them,

"Why are you helping Aaron look after them?" She wondered, "Is it because they need both a Mom and a Dad? Do you and Aaron love each other? My Mom and Dad always talk about you and Aaron."

Emily had to hold back a laugh, she wasn't sure if she was surprised or not that Tom and Alex had talks about her and Aaron. When they'd been dating for two weeks they decided to tell the President and Aaron had been sweating with nerves. He knew how the President thought of Emily as a daughter. But he wasn't that surprised and only offered them his congratulations. Emily did learn later though that, after she'd left the room Tom had warned Aaron about breaking her heart.

"Emily!" Penny laughed running her hands in front of her face, "Are you thinking of Aaron? You must really like him."

Emily looked at the girl and nodded, "I do. I guess I've never really thought about it a lot before. And you know the funny thing is I was just thinking about it when you came in. You made me realize something very important."

"I did?" Penny grinned happily, "What was it?" She wanted to know.

"That I do love Aaron, and the reason I'm helping him look after Ramona and Elena is because I love him. And that no matter what together we can get through anything."

"Wow!" Penny breathed out, ;I helped you with that! I'm going to go and tell everyone!" She stood up and ran out of the room. Emily smiled after her, she wished she had half as much energy as Penny did.

* * *

Walking into Aaron's office Emily stood silently and watched him work. He hadn't realized she was there and she loved seeing him focus on what he was doing. His hair gel was coming out out and little springs of curls were spiking out.

"Hey." Emily made her presence known. Aaron looked up but before he had time to talk she jumped in, "I'm sorry I ran out on you earlier I just had a lot on my mind. But I made a decision now. I love you Aaron. I love you more then I've ever loved anyone else and that honestly scares me. I'm not sure about me moving in right away but I defiantly think in the near future it will happen."

"I love you too Em," Aaron stood up from his desk and crossed the floor. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her, "You take all the time you need."

Emily smiled against his lips and then backed away. "So I heard you talked to Alex today," When Aaron gave her a strange look she continued, "Penny came by my office and dropped off some of her old school uniforms."

"Yeah she gave me a list of possible nanny candidates but said an Au Pair might be batter. I have a list of some of them as well. I might actually move to a small house, just to get some more room and give the girls a backyard to play in. Plus that way an Au Pair could have their own room. You know what an Au Pair is right? Because Mrs. Kirkman had to explain it to me.":

"Yeah I know, it's a young girl that comes from another country that wants to experience the cultural. It would be good to have one that speaks Spanish."

"Yeah that's what I was thinking. In the meantime Penny's' nanny Sofia is going to look after them. Mrs. Kirkman said Ramona can go into school with Penny and Elena can stay upstairs in the residence all day.

"Penny's going to love that, She's so excited about Ramona and Elena coming."

"I bet she is," Aaron couldn't image how board Penny must get sometimes.

"Mrs. Kirkman also said that she was able to get Ramona a partial scholarship. She set up an interview on Wednesday for Ramona and I. You can come too but I though you'd be busy working."

"I'll see what I can move around," Emily leaned in to kiss him. "So let me see these nanny candidates. We should do deep background checks on all of them," She took the list from his desk and went to the couch to sit down. She briefly scanned the list and immediately began taking notes on a black piece of paper.

"And you don't think you'll be a good mother," Aaron shook his head as he sat done beside her on the couch.

 **TBC**

* * *

 **Up Next:** Aaron and Emily, are in Houston to get Ramon and Elena. Will everything go alright?


	4. Chapter 4

**A\N:** I hope everyone likes this chapter. A huge thank you, once again, goes out to my friend and beta reader who helps me out so much.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own anything

 **Warnings:** None

 **Spoilers:** None

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

The hockey arena where the Houston professional team played was being used as one of the main shelters for the Hurricane victims. Over five hundred beds were cramped onto the steel floor where the ice was usually frozen over. Makeshift hospitals and kitchens as well as security rooms were in single rooms. In the days before the President, and the media crews came the administrators tried to clean up the area the cameras were going to be. Everyone knew shelters weren't the best place to be, but nobody wanted to see the worst on TV and in the papers.

Stepping onto the main part of the floor, where things hadn't been cleared up was a bit of a shock for Emily. She suspected things were getting a little covered up but she wasn't expecting it to be this bad. The floor needed to be cleaned and there was an awful foal smell in the air. As she walked to find Aaron she tried to shake off her feelings of uncertainty.

Where Aaron had arrived in the early morning to meet up with his parents and see Ramona and Elena, Emily took on his chief of staff duties and went with the President to various meetings and Hurricane shelters. Now it was almost four o'clock and the President was scheduled to meet with some people at this shelter. With the President's permission Emily had gone off to meet up with Aaron.

"Em," Aaron's voice called her out of her daydream as he stood in front of a curtain. His curly hair a mess and he looked stressed out.

"Hey," Emily walked over to him and gave him a short kiss on the lips. She knew coming here was overwhelming for him so she wasn't about tell him she was having a hard time.

"We couldn't get a room to go to so they curtained off two bed areas," Aaron explained, "How did the meetings go?" He wondered.

"They went alright. I'll fill you in later," She knew they'd have plenty of time to talk about work. Now it was important for them to talk about how he was doing, "Did you go and see what happened?" She wondered. He was thinking about going with his brother in-law to see the damage that happened in the town where to grew up. Which was a two-hour drive away from Houston. However he needed to see what had happened.

"Yeah," He nodded, "Everything's destroyed, It looked like something out of those alien invasion movies," He tried his best to explain what he saw. In reality he still couldn't wrap his head around his whole community being destroyed, everything that he knew was gone and it was pretty scary. When he was eleven thee had been a smaller hurricane that had damaged some buildings but this one had destroyed everything.

"I heard they're starting move families and people into trailers tomorrow," Emily commented as Aaron she walked down the hallway.

"Yeah," Aaron nodded, "But they're going to be pretty crammed with space. It's good we're taking Ramona and Elena today," He stopped such short of the curtain and looked at Emily seriously, "I told them about you but I'm not sure how they'll react. Ramona knows what's going on and so she's acting out. Burt she's dealing with a fear of water right now. She's' been refusing to take a bath. She can understand English pretty well but she's not comfortable speaking it. Elena's stopped learning how to walk."

"I'll be fine Aaron," Emily assured him as she opened the curtain. Sitting on one of the small cots were, Ramona and Elena. Ramona looked up when she saw her and frowned, her arms crossed. She said something in Spanish and Aaron responded back with a frown.

Emily looked at who she assumed to be Aaron's parents and smiled. She wasn't sure what to say, as her Spanish was limited and she was feeling a little nervous. She supposed that was a normal feeling considering she and Aaron were dating, and she had strong feeling for him. She wondered how much Aaron had told them about her.

"Hi," She stepped forward as she heard Aaron introduce her to his parents. Shaking each of their hands she could tell that Aaron got most of his appearance from his mother, including his curls that Emily secretly loved. "I'm so sorry about everything you've been through."

Aaron translated what she said into Spanish and both of his parents smiled a little. It was obvious that they'd been through quite a lot. They both looked older then they probably were and very tired.

As Aaron's patents continued to talk in Spanish Emily turned her attention to Ramona and Elena. The little girls were sitting on a bed playing with a few of the toys Aaron had bought for them.

"Hi girls my names Emily. I think Tio Aaron told you about me," Aaron ahd explained to her that 'Tio' was 'Uncle' in Spanish. "You can call me Emily. I'm Tio Aaron's girlfriend, I work with him too." Emily sat down on the bed and finally Elena turned to look at her, she was chewing on of the new toys Aaron had put in her backpack. As Elena kept looking at her she froze a little bit. She really wasn't sure what to say and when Elena started to cry she really had no clue. Luckily Aaron's mother was quick to pick Elena up.

"Stupid," Ramona looked at Emily and said in English.

"Ramona!" Aaron narrowed his eyes, "You know you don't say those kind of words," As he spoke Ramona turned away from him which got him really angry, "I know you can understand me. Please apologize to Emily."

Ramona looked at Emily and waited a few minutes before saying, "Sorry."

"That's alright," Emily understood that she was dealing with a lot. She was old enough to know and understand what was going on, yet too young to have a say in any of it. Emily guessed she probably did not want to come back to D.C. with them. "I love your hair and I think I have something that you'll love," Emily reached into her bag and got out a package, "My friend Alex gave this to me this morning. Her daughter Penny is nine years old. She's looking forward to meeting you so much that she got you this,

"With interest Ramona took the package and opened it. Inside was a matching bracelet, necklace and headband set. The necklace had one half of a puzzle piece. The bracket did as well. The headband and ponytails were pink.

Aaron looked at the items and then to Emily. He had no idea Alex and Tom were going to be doing something else for the girls.

"Wow," Ramona's eyes shone. She'd never seen anything up close like this before. Her mother never had much jewellery and nothing like this. "Put on…please?" She said slowly in English.

"Of course I can. I'm so glad you like it. Penny has a matching necklace and bracket and her puzzle piece charm matches yours," She explained as she put the headband in Ramona's hair as well as the necklace on her neck, "That means you're friends."

"Friends," Ramona repeated with a smile.

"Yeah you two are going to be friends," Emily smiled. "Has Tio Aaron showed you pictures of your new home?" She reached for her phone and pulled up some of the pictures she'd taken before they'd left. She assumed they'd be scared and nervous so she thought pictures might help since they didn't know much English.

Ramona crawled onto Emily's lap and looked curiously at the phone. She had never a phone so fancy before.

"My brother and sister in-law only had one cell phone and it was pretty simple. Ramona had never seen a smartphone before she saw mine." Aaron explained his nieces interest.

"Oh," Emily was surprised at first but then remembered just how poor Aaron's family was and felt bad, "Well then I think maybe we can find some games on here for you," Emily smiled at Ramona, "In the meantime this is your new room," She showed her the picture of the room they'd done for her.

"Wow!" Ramona's eyes widened and her mouth went wide, "All?" She asked. She couldn't believe she got all of this for herself. The room was bigger then her old room she needed to share with Elena. "Where Elena?" She asked.

"Elena gets her own room," Emily flipped to another picture, "And this is the room that had most of your toys in it," Emily showed her the living area.

Ramona began talking excitedly in Spanish as she pointed to toys in the picture. "Abuela, Abuelo!" She tried to take Emily's phone away.

"Here, you go give this to Tio Aaron then you can all look at the pictures," Emily suggested as she put Ramona on the ground and handed her the cell phone. Ramona walked slowly over to Aaron who picked her up and began showing the pictures to his parents. When they were finished Aaron whisper something in Ramona's ear and then set her on the ground.

"Thank you…Emily," Ramona walked over to her and handed her back the phone.

"You're very welcome," Emily smiled at her. Now looking at her up close she could see the family resemblance to Aaron especially with her long brown curls. However her skin was a shade darker then Aaron's and Elena's was a bit darker as well.

Emily smiled at Ramona and the young girl sat down beside her on the bed. Soon Aarons; mother put Elena down beside her sister and Elena looked at Emily. Emily and Aaron continued to visit, Aaron talking to his parents mostly and Emily with the girls. Relieved she seemed quite okay in all this mess that had become her life in the past Soon enough though, she got a text indicating it was time to go. Aaron and Emily had decided to climb in Air Force One before the President and before any press would be there, so that they could avoid focusing the attention on them. So it was time, time to say goodbye. It was hard to explain to two little girls why they were going away with two persons they barely knew, but they had to.

Air Force One had been in the air for an hour and both Ramona and Elena were sleeping after an exhausting day. They had not been happy leaving their grandparents and had spent a lot of time crying and trying to run away from Aaron and Emily. Finally after Aaron had put a movie on the TV on Air Force One they'd calmed down and gone to sleep. He didn't want to go to far away from them; so once again Emily was continuing to act as Chief of Staff as he did some paperwork.

"They're cute," Seth sat in the empty seat beside his friend, looking across the aisle at a sleeping Ramona and Elena, "I mean they didn't sound to cute when they were upset but…"

"I get it Seth," Aaron looked up from his paper work and turned to his best friend, "  
What's up?"

"I just wanted to check in. See how everything went for you today," Everyone was worried about Aaron. Seth knew that he wouldn't let anyone know he was hurting until it was much to late. The President didn't want that to happen though, so he was encouraging his Senior Staff to pay close attention to him.

"I'm fine," Aaron sighed. In all honesty he didn't know what he was feeling. It was a real mixed up bag of emotions. He was devastated that his brother and sister in-law had died and his hometown destroyed. Angry that he couldn't stay around for their funeral, worried he wouldn't be able to look after Ramona and Elena and scared. He was scared that even though Emily said she was on board that she'd change her mind. And if that happened a part of him wouldn't be able to blame her.

"I'm here if you need to talk," Seth reminded him. "In the meantime I think we should get a statement out to the press regarding Ramona and Elena."

"No," Aaron shook his head, "We got through today. I think everything will be fine. I don't want them in the media and press. They've been through enough."

"I understand, but when you bring them to the White House and leave them in the Residence people re going to make the connection." Seth eluded to the fact that, until Aaron and Emily were able to find a nanny Penny's nanny was going to look after them, "Plus when that happens, and I start getting questions about everything. It's better to prepare a statement now so it doesn't look like we're hiding anything."

Aaron knew his friend was right, that made sense. Especially in terms of how the public viewed Kirkman. But as Aaron looked at Ramona and Elena he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

"What does Emily think?" Aaron asked rubbing his forehead. He knew she'd have a less biased opinion on this then he did.

"I came to you first."

"Write a draft statement and get her to look it over for you."

Seth nodded his head and again gave his friend a concerned look, "Are you sure you don't need to talk to someone?"

"I'm fine."

"Alright," Seth stood up.

It was after midnight when Aaron and Emily arrived back to the condo with the girls. After sleeping for around an hour on the plane they'd woken up and had a little bit for dinner before playing for a while. They'd slept for a bit longer on the plane but had to be woken up when the landed. Getting off the plane with all of the media and cameras was a bit of an overwhelming experience for them, as was riding in SUV's and meeting some Secret Service Guards. Once they arrived at the White House Aaron and Emily simply transferred them into Aaron's car and drove back to his condo. The girls both falling asleep within minutes. After getting to the condo Aaron took Ramona and Emily took Elena and they carried them up the stairs and into the condo unit. It was easy getting them changed and into bed as neither of them woke up. After both walking into Aaron's room Emily went to get hanged and Aaron collapsed onto his bed.

"Aaron," Emily walked over to his side of the bed, "You've been through an enormous loss. It's perfectly natural to cry. Especially after everything you've seen and heard today." She wished he'd open up and talk to her about everything he was feeling

Aaron shook his head, "Everything was ruined, torn apart, I mean they're still looking for bodies or body parts. All the places I spent my childhood are all gone. Going there and seeing everything just….it would have been so scary and horrible. An awful way to die."

Not knowing what to say Emily crawled onto his lap and gave him a soft kiss, "Just remember you're doing something amazing. Taking in Ramona and Elena was so amazing. It's going to take awhile but they're going to be so happy here." She lay down on top of him pulling a blanket overtop of them. Closing her eyes she inhaled his scent and smiled, "I love you."

"I love you too." Aaron kissed the top of her head and closed his eyes.

 **TBC**

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 **A\N:** Please review and tell me what you thought.


	5. Chapter 5

**A\N:** So here it is, the next chapter. Thank you so much to my friend and beta reader who helped me so much with this chapter. If there are any mistakes they are mind though not hers. I checked it over before posting it but there may still be some typos.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own anything.

 **Spoilers:** None

 **Warnings:** None

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

It was the morning after. Everybody was tired. Ramona and Elena both had had a bad night, and Aaron therefore had had a bad night as well. Emily wasn't feeling very refreshed either. She'd ended up sleeping on the couch so that Ramona and Elena could sleep with Aaron in their bed. While sleeping, she had dreamed of her own bed, at her place, far from everything. She wasn't really sure how to behave, whether it was in front of Aaron or the girls. She knew Aaron was trying to be strong for them, even though he did cry last night she wasn't expecting it to happen again soon. She was filling her travel mug with coffee; ready to go to work when Aaron entered the kitchen carrying Elena. He walked over to her and kissed her on the cheek.

"I'm so sorry about last night. I hate that you had to sleep on the couch. How are you feeling?" He wondered as he put Elena into the high chair and buckled her in.

"Oh, you know, it's not the first time I've slept on the couch, and it won't be the last either. It could have been worse, how are you feeling?" She asked changing the subject.

"Yeah I know," Aaron put Elena in her high chair and began looking around the kitchen. He wondered what to give Elena for breakfast. He tried to remember what his mother had said but there was so much going on then, His mother and father had given him so much information in such a short time. A bottle. Right. He went to the cabinet and got down the formula container. He read the instructions and the read them again. Surely making a bottle shouldn't be this hard. He scratched is head and sighed out frustrated.

Elena began to cry, and cry loudly. She was hungry and she could see an empty bottle sitting on the counter. Kicking her feet against her high chair she began hitting her hands on the tray as well.

Aaron turned around, the container of formula still in his hands, "Em, do you have time-" He motioned to Elena. He wanted to get her bottle finished as quickly as possible and he'd be able to focus better without her crying. He also wanted Ramona to sleep in more as she, more then Elena ha trouble sleeping. If she woke up soon and was tired and grumpy the entire day it would just make an already stressful day worse.

"Yeah," Emily knew now that she was going to be late. But this was a more important. She lifted Elena up and held her, a bit awkwardly at first as she wasn't sure quite how to hold her. Finally placing her on her hip Elena looked up at her and touched her face. "Hi," Emily smiled at the baby. "I know you're hungry aren't you," She wasn't sure why Elena was playing with her earrings but she was glad when Aaron came back with Elena's bottle.

"Here," Aaron took Elena into his arms and placed her back in the high chair. He handed her the bottle, which Elena began to feverishly drink, "Now should we cut you up you some banana's? And maybe we'll make pancakes for your older sister when she wakes up," Aaron spoke in Spanish. He knew that talking in English to the girls was important. Although he was afraid that they'd loose their Spanish heritage if they didn't speak Spanish to them. That was something he knew his brother would not want.

"You know it was. It's not surprising the first night didn't go over well." Emily walked over to Aaron seeing him a little more stressed out then he should be. "Things will get better." You should start looking at the profiles of the Au Pair's the agency sent you." Emily suggested.

Aaron turned to look at her and tried to hold in a nasty response. He knew she was only trying to help but he already had a huge list of things to do today. He figured some other things were more important then getting the girls a nanny or Au Pair. "Great. One more thing to worry about." Aaron rolled his eyes.

"Let me call my mother. She can narrow the search down to ten that you could Skype interview." Emily suggested

"Thanks," Aaron smiled, "That would help a lot. I don't know if I'm going to be able to do much today. I don't know how everything will go. I'm not even sure if I should talk to them in Spanish or English.

"Just do what comes natural. You're so good with them." Emily gave him a quick kiss, "I really need to go. I have a meeting in half an hour. Bye," She walked towards the door.

"Bye!" Elena waved, her hands now sticky from the bananas.

Emily was startled for a second; she wasn't expecting that, "Bye…Elena," She smiled at the baby who grinned back at her. She had to admit Elena was adorable. However she knew that kids were a lot more then just cute Looking after them was complicated and there was a lot involved. She hardly knew anything about kids and yet she was being thrown into the middle of it all. And it wasn't as if she'd had nine months to deal with everything and the girls were babies, they were older. In that regard though she thought she'd look into doing some reading on how to look after the girls and how to do certain things best.

As the door closed Aaron turned back to Elena who had finished her bananas. Upstairs he heard Ramona wake up and inwardly cringed. Today was going to be a very interesting day. He just hoped it wasn't too bad.

So far the morning had been off to a hectic Ramona had come down stairs still tired and cranky. She asked where her parents were again but seemed to understand when Aaron explained to her that they were in heaven. She ate a few pieces of pancakes and then looked around the condo. She'd never seen so many different toys before and wasn't sure what to do first. Some of the toys didn't interest her at all and others she figured were for Elena. She settled for the play kitchen and began taking out all of the play food and pots and pans.

"Emily?" She looked at Aaron as he was putting Elena on the floor within crawling reach of some toys. Elena picked up the Batgirl doll and began chewing on it. She crawled over to where Aaron was standing and touched his leg she began to whimper just a little bit.

"Emily went to work." Aaron explained, "Hopefully you'll see her tonight." Deciding he could wait to clean the kitchen he sat down next to Elena, "Can you walk for me?" He wondered as he stood her up on her legs?" Elena sat back down and immediately began to cry. "Maybe later," Aaron wanted her to start walking as she was staring to do doing before the Hurricane.

At twelve o'clock after making the girls sandwiches for lunch Aaron tried putting Elena down for a nap. She'd been crying all morning and Aaron figured she was tired, however it was hard to settle her. After he got Elena down for a nap he walked back down stairs to the living room where he had put the TV on for Ramona. Since she was occupied he decided to take this time to figure out a school for her to attend.

Aaron wanted Ramona to learn English but still know Spanish. Since Penny's school was not bilingual his first task was to look for one that was. There were a few options but Aaron found one he thought was the best. He called and explained his situation and got an interview for the following day. He had just put his cell phone down, when he saw Ramona go into his briefcase and pull out some paper.

"Wow, wow," Aaron took them from her, "Those aren't for you." He had taken some important documents home from work. In the rare case he was able to get some work done. The last thing he wanted was for Ramona to colour on them. He packed up all of his papers and stuffed them into his briefcase and pressed the lock down on the suitcase.

"Quiero colorear."

"I don't have anything to colour. Why don't you play with some toys? Or watch TV?"

"No. Outside?" Ramona asked.

"Maybe later. When your sister wakes up from her nap. Why don't you play with toys right now? How about we set you up with your Leap Pad?" Aaron stood up and took her by the hand and led her over to the small table. On it was her Leap Pad. It was already connected to the Wi-Fi Aaron had for his condo so Ramona could start using it right away. Sitting down in one of the chairs Aaron picked up the pink device and began to show Ramona all of the different games she could play or videos she could watch. As expected she seemed to enjoy the Spanish videos and games. Soon she moved over to the couch and sat down playing with it. Aaron smiling every time she laughed. He was glad that slowly she was beginning to adjust somewhat to her new life.

While Ramona was playing on her Leap Frog Aaron took the opportunity to look up some houses in the D.C. area. He wasn't sure if he wanted a house or townhouse or wanted to rent or buy. He knew he wanted at least a small yard for the girls to play in and at least three bedrooms and possibly a basement apartment for the Au Pair. With everything he wanted the prices were expensive but he was expecting that. Living anywhere in the city wasn't cheap. Luckily though Ramona's new school had a pretty big catchment zone. So they could live an hour outside the city and a bus could pick her up for school. He didn't want to live that far away form the White House though and commuting could be a nightmare. He'd consider moving further away after Kirkman was no longer President, considering of course what he was doing for work then.

Elena started to cry just as Aaron's cell phone rang, seeing it was Emily Aaron picked up his cell phone and held it as he made his way toward the stairs. "Hey Em, Elena just woke up from her nap so I may not answer quickly. How's work?"

"Busy," Emily answered, "I'm just sitting down now for the first time. There's a bad Hurricane coming to Florida, so they're doing evacuations there. And there's race riots stemming from the event in Charlottesville all over."

"Oh," Aaron wanted to say he'd known about all of this but he didn't. He hadn't looked at the news all day. That was the fist time in a long time that he hadn't. He felt awful. As Chief of Staff he should be on top of all of this. "I can-"

"No," Emily cut him off before he could answer. You need to be at home. Alex does want to see the girls though; Penny's excited to meet them too. Alex was wondering if you could bring them by today."

"Sure," Aaron lifted Elena out of her crib and towards the change table. "I think they're getting board here anyways. Tell me about your day?" He began to change her diaper. Placing his phone on speaker so it was easier to talk he listned as Emily explained what had been going on.

"Tio Aaron!" Ramona walked into the room, "Colour now!"

"Just a second," Aaron finished changing Elena and set the baby on his hip, "Say hi to Emily. I'm talking to her on the phone."

"Hi Emily!" Ramona yelled happily, "Where is you?"

"I'm at work sweetheart. But Tio Aaron is going to come and bring you to see me," Emily told her.

"Yay!" Ramona cheered happily, "Emily!" She began talking fast in Spanish and Aaron laughed as he could barley keep up with her. When she was finished she ran out of Elena's room.

"That's the normal Ramona," Aaron informed Emily, "Very sociable and talkative and energetic my brother used to joke that-" He stopped. Talking about his brother in the past tense still hurt him.

"I know," Emily wasn't really sure what else to say at this point. "I'll let you go. You should take Ramona and Elena to that big craft store if Ramona wants to colour."

"Good idea. I'll do that then bring them by the White House," Aaron told her. "I love you," He added. They had only started using that word at the beginning of the summer. Aaron saying it first, now though he wanted her to know how much he truly appreciated all that she was doing. "Really Emily, helping me with all of this and everything-"

"I love you too," Emily cut him off, she'd already explained that helping out with the girls was something she wanted to do, "See you soon." She heard her work cell phone ring and she let out a sigh, "I have to go." She hung up the phone.

Aaron tucked his phone back into the pocket of his jeans and carried Elena out of the room. He walked into Ramona's room. She was looking at some of her Spanish books. "We're going out. Go and fill your backpack with some toys."

Ramona looked at him and he was about to say it again in Spanish but then Ramona looked up, "Leap, dolls," She mumbled quietly in English. Almost as if she was afraid those weren't the right words to use.

"Sure. You can bring your Leap Frog and some dolls," Aaron smiled at her, "I'm sure your new friend Penny would love those."

"Penny," Ramona smiled as she touched her necklace.

"That's right. Penny's the one who gave you the necklace," Aaron smiled. Seeing Ramona fill up her backpack he want to get a backpack with some toys for Elena as well as her diaper bag all packed

Walking into the craft store Aaron was starting to think this was a bad idea. He had no idea what they needed to get and as he was getting Elena into the cart seat Ramona began to walk away to look at something on a nearby shelf. He was just barley able to take her hand to pull her back to him. The last thing he needed, or wanted was for her to get lost in a store this big. Knowing she'd likely wander off again he lifted her up and put her in the seat beside her sister.

As expected, as it was the week before school started the store was crowded. If Aaron had thought about that before he would not have taken the girls today. The only thing about the back to school sales he was glad about was that it meant all of the simple supplies were easy to find. He found a package of one hundred assorted shades of construction paper, markers and crayons all in the same aisle.

As he ventured further into the store he was beginning to regret it. There were some many activities that he was sure Ramona would love. He looked at his niece who was wide-eyed looking at everything. She'd probably never seen so many art supplies before.

"Alright Ramona," Aaron pulled the cart into a relatively quirt corner, "We can get three more things. You try speaking English and tell me what you want." He knew speaking Spanish was easier for her but he knew she needed to learn to speak English. Most people would not be speaking to her in Spanish and Aaron wanted her to be able to respond and have conversations in both languages.

"Tiza," Ramona said looking at her uncle and then around the store. Back before the Hurricane she loved to play outside and draw pictures.

"Chalk," Aaron told her the English word, "Now say it back to me, say chalk," He instructed.

"Chalk." Ramona repeated, "I want chalk please."

Aaron looked at her with a huge smile on his face. That was the most English he'd hear her speak. "That was great Ramona!" He kissed her on the forehead, "I'm so proud of you. We'll find some chalk. Maybe a lot of it so Penny and you can play with it; what else do you want?"

"Caballete?" Ramona asked hesitantly. Her parents had always told her something like that was too expensive to have. Although she'd always wanted one.

"A paint easel." Aaron grinned, "Sure, that's a great idea. We can get paint too. And a smock." Aaron didn't want Ramona to get her clothes all covered in paint. He had a feeling now that she loved art. Why his brother never mentioned that in any of their conversation he didn't know.

Ramona smiled brightly, she looked around the store and saw something on a high shelf, "That!" She pointed.

Aaron turned around and looked, it was a huge princes castle with cardboard. It was meant to be coloured or painted. He suspected it to be a lot of money. His first reaction was to say no but then he realized that Ramona had most likely never gotten any toy she really wanted before. "Sure."

After finishing up their shopping Aaron loaded the girls back into his car. He could see Elena was getting a little antsy and wondered how she'd do at the White House. If Alex had never invited them he wouldn't even think to bring the girls there. He understood, more then most people that the West Wing was no place for children. There were many staffers who didn't like Penny walking around the hallways. A four year old and fifteen month old was a totally different story.

Parking in his usual spot Aaron got out of the car and went to get Elena. After getting her and swigging her backpack onto his shoulder, as well as the diaper bag he looked at Ramona. Ramona had already come to the other side of the car carrying her backpack on her back, and the bag with the newly bought chalk in one hand.

"Ramona," Aaron looked at her, "You need to be very good here. This is where Tio Aaron work's and it's a very important place." He tried to explain the importance of everything to her.

"Emily? Penny?"

"Yeah will be seeing Emily and Penny." Aaron took her hand and led her into the staff entrance. He flashed his access badge and then began to ask if he needed visitor badges for the girls.

"Emily!" Ramona let go of her uncle's hand and ran at top speed across the long hallway. She weaved her way through a few people, causing some glances. However most people went back to work rather quickly, the White House was always busy and there was no time for stopping. Ramona reached Emily and grinned up at her and hugged her.

"Ramona," Emily looked up startled at the young girl calling her name. Before she knew it the young girl had her arms wrapped around her. "Hi," She gently patted the little girls head. She wasn't quite she what else to do.

"Ramona," Aaron looked at his niece sternly as he approached her, "I said be good. Tienes que escucharme," He spoke in Spanish to make sure she understood. "That means no running." He repeated.

"Emily," Ramona hugged Emily once more. She reached for Emily's hand and grasped it tightly.

"Ramona-" Emily wasn't sure if she should get involved, but considering she did run to her it felt important. "I'm glad you want to see me but it's important to walk in here. There are a lot of people and it's an important place. Do you understand?" Ramona nodded her head and so Emily began to walk towards her office, Ramona still holding onto her hand.

As soon as the door was shut Ramona showed Emily one of the bags from the craft store. Inside were different kinds of chalk. "Look," She urged Emily, then she took off her backpack and showed her the still unopened box of President and Vice President Barbie dolls Emily had gotten her.

"She asked what to bring and I thought those would be good," Aaron shrugged his shoulders. Seeing the slight smile on his girlfriend's face he knew he'd made the right decision. He could tell she was still unsure about how to act in front of Ramona and Elena, and that was understandable. However he found her wanting to buy them things and wanting to be around them a good sign she wanted this situation to work out.

Emily laughed and nodded, "Yeah that's a good idea. I'll text Alex tell you're here." She got out her cell phone. She began walking back to her desk. She placed her folders back on her desk and got out her cell phone to send a message to Alex. Ramona quickly went after her, she leaned agansit the desk and watched Emily type.

Seeing Ramona near her again Emily wasn't sure what to do. She didn't know what to say to the girl, or why she was following her at all. Emily assumed she'd be attached to Aaron. Not including Penny, and a few children she babysat when she was a teenager Emily had no experience with children. She knew some of her friends from high school and college had them, but with her hours she hadn't seen her friends in months, in some cases years. Being successful in politics wasn't something that happened overnight, especially for a woman. She needed to work three times as hard and that meant no social life. She'd had a few boyfriends sure. But nothing serious, nothing until Aaron and that still scared her. She'd never been one to think about having babies. The thought had never even entered her mind with Aaron until she's saw him with Ramona and Elena. He was so relaxed and at ease with them, something he was never in their very high stress job. Her recent thoughts had turned into what their baby might look like or even how her or she woukd act. This terrified her; she was in no way ready to have a child. Not emotionally and not career wise. She didn't ever think it would be a good time for her to have a child given the nature of her job. Yet. More and more she wanted to have a baby in the future, in a few years when things with Ramona and Elena calmed down.

After Emily put her phone back on her desk Ramona went to the box with the Barbie's in it and brought it to Emily. "Play? She asked hopefully.

"I have-" Emily began but stopped when she saw her pout. She didn't want to make her unhappy, "Okay," She said but then told herself that she was only going to play with her until Alex came with Penny, which according to the First Lady was any minute. A minute turned into fifteen and Ramona was sitting on Emily's lap when Alex, along with Penny and Tom walked into the room.

Aaron was busy playing with Elena but stood up as soon as he realized what was going on, "Mr. President," He smiled and nodded.

"You shouldn't have to stand up Aaron, it looks like Elena's about to cry," Tom pointed out seeing the babies cheeks get red. "Can I hold her?" He asked. He missed his own children being that young.

"Of course," Aaron picked Elena up and handed her over. Elena whimpered a little but then calmed down as Tom began talking to her.

"Ramona," Emily took the four year old off her lap and took her hand, "This is Penny," She introduced her to the older girl who was standing beside her mother. "Say hi, and show her what you brought."

Ramona smiled "Hi."

Penny, her hair in a pony tail smiled back at the younger girl, "Hi. I have dolls up in my room if you want to see them. And I have some games we could play." She offered. She hoped that Ramona was able to understand her, as she'd love a friend to play with. Her older brother never wanted to play and she hardly ever got to have any friends over.

Ramona looked up at Emily a little unsure. She wanted to go and play outside. "I think Ramona was hoping to go outside. She has some chalk and other fun outdoor things." Emily went to get the bag, she showed it to Penny.

"I think getting some fresh air would be a great idea," Alex began before Penny had the chance too, "You've been inside all day and it's so nice out."

Penny sighed. What she really wanted to do was to go swimming but her mother had told her Ramona couldn't swim so they couldn't go swimming. She didn't know why the younger girl couldn't just wear a life jacket but didn't ask her mother any more questions. She had learnt at a young age that when her parents told her 'no' they meant it. Still though, it would be nice to have someone to play with in the pool, as swimming was one of her favourite things to do. Having a huge pool to play in wasn't fun if she had no one to play with. As much as she was getting used to playing on her own, swimming by herself wasn't as much fun. She hoped that after Ramona got settled in that she'd learn how to swim.

"Come on Penny," Alex encouraged her daughter. "Maybe you two can play with dolls later."

"Yeah Ramona has a President and Vice President Barbie Dolls," Aaron spoke up. "Emily got them for her," He added as a good-natured ribbing of his girlfriend.

"Oh that's so cool!" Penny smiled, "I've always wanted Barbie dolls like that!" She loved playing with dolls and had a huge doll collection. She'd been searching for political or historical dolls as of late. She hadn't been able to find any and wondered how the younger girl got them before she did.

"We play later," Ramona went to get the Barbie's off of Emily's desk. She handed them over to Penny, who took them,

"You're so lucky. I want these." Penny looked at the dolls. "I want them. Ms. Rhodes where did you get them?" She turned to Emily and asked. "I love them so much, Daddy look!" Penny ran over to her father to show him.

"I see little P," Tom chuckled; it wasn't a surprise considering how much she was interested in feminist issues. Tom didn't ever stop Alex from talking to Penny about these things. He also wasn't the least bit surprised to see

"Maybe we can have the President Barbie doll sit in Daddy's chair?" Penny turned to Ramona and smiled, "And then take her to the Press Room and she can have a press conference. Maybe she can sign a bill. Maybe one about woman's rights," Penny continued, "I can film it on my tablet and we can post it all."

"Maybe, if Aaron says its okay," Alex wasn't sure how the Chief of Staff felt about putting his nieces on social media. "Now lets go and get some sun screen and find you both hats," She looked at Ramona wondering if they could find one of Penny's hats that fit.

"My bag," Ramona got her backpack and hand it to Alex. Alex looked inside and smiled as she saw a hat and sunscreen.

"Well you're very prepared." She took out the items and smiled down at the girl.

"It gets into the hundreds easily in Texas during the summer. Especially close to the Mexican border," Aaron explained, "She's used to wearing a hat and sun screen. You go with Alex and Penny sweetheart." He wasn't sure if she'd be willing to go without him but he wanted to at least try. If she was going to get attached to him, her first day of school wasn't going to go over well.

Ramona hesitated for a second. She wasn't sure if she wanted to go alone. She walked over towards Aaron and looked up at him looking as if she was about to cry.

"Do you like hopscotch Ramona?" Penny asked the younger girl. She saw her beginning to get upset and hoped this would help, "We can make a hopscotch board. We can even get my Secret Service agents to play," She added with a slight giggle.

Ramona looked at the older girl and slightly smiled. She walked towards her and took the hand Penny had ready for her to hold. She took it and she and Penny walked out of the room.

"Well that was easy," Aaron sighed with relief. He was very glad Ramona went happily with Penny. "I hope she stays this outgoing. When you get her talking in Spanish she usually won't stop," He explained, "I was afraid with all of the changes things would be different. It's affecting her in different ways though. By the way Mrs. Kirkman thank you for the suggesting of Penny's school but I think… I made an interview with Crestwood Academy tomorrow. It's a bilingual school and I think that would be better for Ramona."

"Of course," Alex nodded her head, "You need to do what you think is best for her," She could understand why a bilingual school would be better. She'd heard nothing but great things about Crestwood Academy she knew that was where lots of business people and people who worked in embassies of Spanish speaking countries sent their children.

After getting hats and sunscreen on Penny and Ramona went outside with Alex and some Secret Service guards. Alex had explained the job of the Secret Service agents to Ramona, however she was still confused. And once she got outside she wasn't interested in anything. She'd never seen a lawn as big and wide as the one in front her and she was very excited.

Knowing about Ramona's fear of water Alex had taken the girls to the part of the lawn farthest from the pool. So when Ramona began to run around she couldn't see the pool at all. As she ran around and looked at almost everything Penny made a hopscotch path for them. They played hopscotch and got Penny's agents to play, something that was documented with pictures. After that they drew pictures with the chalk, everyone amazed at how well Ramona could draw. Everyone could see that drawing was a talent. Alex made a note to find out some ways of using art or art therapy to help the girl adjust to everything new in her life.

"I see everything seems to be going great," Emily walked outside onto the walkway in the midst of Ramona and Penny trying to guess what a Secret Service Agent was drawing.

"Yeah," Alex nodded, "Ramona's a great girl. She and Penny are getting along great. Have you seen her draw?" Alex pointed to all of the chalk drawings on the sidewalk. She pointed out all of the ones that Ramona had drawn.

"Wow!" Emily looked at the pictures. She didn't' know much about what four year olds show be drawing but considering she her drawings were better then Penny's Emily knew she was gifted, "Aaron mentioned she wanted to draw. He took her to that art store and got a bunch of things."

"That's good," Alex nodded and then seeing Penny wanting her agents to play with her more she intervened, "That's enough Penny. Let them do their jobs. Why don't you and Ramona play tag or hide and seek?" She suggested.

"Sure. Lets race! Follow me!" Penny immediately had an idea at her mother's suggestion. She began to run towards the other side of the lawn, where the pool was. She turned around to make sure Ramona was following her, she was. Reaching the pool gate she opened it up and ran inside. She stopped near the pool and turned to the young girl.

"If you learn how to swim we can spend all next summer in here," Penny smiled brightly at her, "Swimming is a lot of fu-" She didn't get to finish as Ramona started to scream.

"No!" Ramona shook her head and as she screamed tears rushed out of her brown eyes. She wanted to run, run as far away as she could but she was rooted to the spot, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" She yelled. As she continued to cry she looked around for something to climb onto, She didn't want the water to get as high as it had before. She began to try to climb the fence when Emily came rushing to her.

"It's alright Ramona!" Emily took Ramona into her arms, the girl still kicking her feet and crying, "This water isn't going to hurt you. I promise." She wished she knew more Spanish then she did. Working in politics she had picked up a few odd words and phrases but nothing she could say at this moment to Ramona.

"No!" Ramona began hitting her. "Mommy! I want Mommy!" She sobbed, her body still shaking. "I want Mommy!" She screamed loudly.

"I know you do," Emily tried to hug her again, "Mommy and Daddy are watching over you," She reminded her. She carried her out of the pool area and onto the lawn. She wished she knew what to say or how to calm the girl down. Ramona however was still sobbing. "Do you know any songs we could sing? Or you could tell me all about what you drew?" Emily carried her over to where she and Penny had drawn with the chalk.

Ramona lifted her head up a looked around her; a little surprised she turned back to Emily, "no water?"

"No. That was a pool. People swim in it; it's not going to hurt you. You don't need to go in to he water though." Emily rubbed her back.

"Okay," Ramona nodded her head a little. "Emily stay?" She asked hopefully.

"Yeah I'll stay with you," Emily sat down on the ground, Ramona now in her lap. Ramona took the chalk and began colouring again.

Fifteen minutes later Alex approached with Penny. She had now explained to her why Ramona was afraid of the water and Penny felt horrible for what had happened. She was such a caring girl and she hated it when anyone else was hurt, she hated it more if she hurt anyone. She asked her mother if there was anything she could do to help Ramona feel better.

"Ramona," Penny approached the girl, "I'm so sorry you were so scared."

"No water," Ramona shook her head.

"You don't need to go near the pool," Penny assured her, "You know there's a ice cream sundae machine in the White House kitchen. I think if we ask the chef Mr. Handler nicely we'd be able to get one."

"Well that sounds nice, what do you think Ramona?" Emily looked at the young girl, "Do you want some ice cream?"

"You come?"

"Yeah I'll come," Emily nodded her head.

Alex led them into the kitchen Ramona stayed up in Emily's arms. She clung to her desperately and cried as Emily tried putting her down. In the end Ramona settled for sitting on a chair eating ice cream and a milkshake with Emily sitting beside her. She was, once again amazed at the vast size of the kitchen and how the chef was very nice and welcoming. She'd never heard of a chef before, at home her mother used to do all of the cooking, but if all chef's had ice cream then she was okay with that.

Licking her spoon up so it was clean Ramona stood up and brought the bowl and spoon over to the sink. She stood on her tippy-toes and tried to push the bowl into the sink.

"Oh that's alright honey," David Handler, the White House chef took the bowl, "But thank you so much. You're very polite."

Ramona looked up at the older man and then ran back to Emily burying her face into Emily's lap.

"I think we should probably go. I need to get back to work and I bet Aaron probably wants to get the girls home for dinner," Emily stood up and lifted Ramona into her arms again.

"Alright," Alex nodded her head, "Penny say goodbye to Ramona. You'll see her again on Monday. She and Elena are going to be spending some time here while Aaron and Emily look for a Au Pair."

"Okay," Penny smiled happily, "We'll have lots of time to play then," She walked over to Ramona. She wanted to apologize for what she did but she didn't want to see her get upset again. She settled for sating goodbye to her new friend.

"Bye," Ramona whispered before turning the other way and tightening her grip on Emily. She stayed like that until Emily carried her into her office and she saw Aaron. "Tio Aaron!" She ran to her uncle and hugged him. "Why Elena cry?" She wondered.

"I don't know," Aaron responded, "I think she may be a little sick She has a fever I think," He told Emily. "I haven't been able to settle her. I think I'm going to take the girls home now. I'll run into a pharmacy and pick up some medication for Elena. Hopefully that'll help her."

"Hopefully," Emily didn't like how pale and sick the baby looked either. "I guess I could bring some work with me an go back to your condo with you. That way I can stay in the car with the girls while you run in to get the medication."

"I can manage," Aaron didn't want Emily to fall behind on work. He knew she had extra work to do now that he was taking some time off. For this he felt a little guilty.

"Emily!" Ramona turned and hugged her tightly, "No!" She shook her head. She wanted Emily to tuck her in and read her a story.

"Emily needs to stay here," Aaron told his niece, a little surprised at her sudden attachment to Emily. "You'll see her soon."

"No!" Ramona shook her head and began to cry.

"Ramona!" Aaron frowned; the last thing he needed was having to deal with both girls crying. "You-"

"I'll just come home with you. She's probably temporally attached to me," Emily couldn't see how or why Ramona would like her so much. She wasn't nearly as good with her as Aaron was. There was also the fact that Aaron was her uncle, someone she'd been hearing about her entire life. She was, up until a few hours ago attached to him. Emily was certain that's how it would be tomorrow as well.

"Yay!" Ramona cheered happily; she looked up at Emily and took her hand, "We play?" She asked hopefully.

"When we get home. After we make dinner. We can give Tio Aaron a break. Think of something you love to eat." Emily instructed. She began getting everything she needed to go home early.

"I was going to make tuna casserole," Aaron told her, "Now I'm not sure what to do." He told her. Elena started to cry even louder and Aaron knew he needed to get her home and figure out what was going on, "I have to get her out of here," Aaron said as Elena was still crying. He didn't want other staffers to begin complaining, "Come on Ramona," He said as he quickly gathered everything together. "Emily will meet us back at the house later."

"No!" Ramona shook her head, "Stay with Emily!"

Before Aaron could say anything Emily spoke up, "No problem. Actually I should probably get car seats for them in my car anyways. Just take Ramona's car seat out of your car and leave it at the front desk. We can pick up one for Elena on the way home." Emily told him.

"Yeah alright," Aaron didn't have time to argue too much he just wanted to get Elena home and figure out what was going on with her. He took her baby bag and left the office.

"Play with toys quietly Ramona," Emily instructed, "I'm going to do a little more work. Then we can leave." Emily at back down at her desk and began working. Ramona stayed right beside her and didn't move. Although when Emily gave her a pen and paper she happily coloured.

"Ms. Rhodes," Emily's assistant Nathan knocked on the door and waited until Emily told him he could enter. "Can you sign these? There about the interns that are going to be starting next week?" He walked towards the desk.

"Sure, I'm going to stay here for about half an hour more then head out," She told him. She signed the papers after just skimming them. She already read them over and had signed other things in regards to the new interns.

Ramona handed him some papers, "I signed these," She repeated what she'd heard spoken a few seconds before.

Not sure what to do Nathan went on instinct. He cane from a large family and had young nieces and nephews so he was used to having young children around. "Oh thank you. Are you out new Chief of Staff in Training?" He asked as he took the papers. "Are you going to go to any meetings?" He wondered

"No," Emily shook her head, "I don't want her to know how to take over my job completely yet," She added with a hint of a smile.

"Of course Ms. Rhodes," Nathan nodded his head as he left the office and closed the door.

"Hey Em," Kendra knocked on the door and walked into her friends office, "I'm going to-" She stopped talking as she saw Ramona looking back at her. She hadn't gone to Houston so she hadn't met her yet but she figured out who she was pretty easily. "You must be Ramona," Kendra walked into the room and smiled, "My names Kendra, I'm Tio Aaron and Emily's friend. I work here too. What are you doing working here so late?"

"I help Emily!" Ramona smiled proudly, "What you do?"

"I'm a lawyer," Kendra replied hoping Ramona wouldn't ask for more detail, She wasn't sure how to explain what she did to a girl so young.

"Aaron brought the girls to meet Penny. Elena was crying and pretty cranky though so Aaron took her home, Ramona wanted to stay with me so I said she could stay, I'm almost finished and then I'll take he to get something to eat."

Kendra smiled as she watched Emily talk. She knew how nervous she was about looking after Elena and Ramona. However from what Kendra was seeing and hearing she was a natural. She seemed perfectly at ease with looking after Ramona.

"Well I'll let you get back to work then," Kendra walked towards the door, "Have a good night."

"You too Kendra."

Ramona ran up to her, "I see you again?" She asked hopefully.

"I'm sure you will," Kendra smiled down at the young girl and watched as she ran back to Emily's desk.

After ten more minutes Emily finally finished up working and packed everything up. She took Ramona's hand as she led her out of the West Wing. It was six thirty and Emily knew Ramona must have been getting hungry, even though she didn't say she was. She stopped by a fast food restaurant drive through, she knew it was unhealthy but it had been a crazy fee days for everyone. Plus Emily was sure that Aaron wanted to ensure the girls are healthy most nights so this wasn't going to become a regular thing.

When Emily and Ramona arrived back at the condo Elena was still crying. Aaron was holding her as he tried to look up paediatrician on his phone. He saw Emily and sighed with relief.

"Ramona, go play in your room," Emily told the four year old as she approached Aaron.

"What's wrong with Elena?" Ramona asked in Spanish as she began to get worried about her younger sister.

"Now Ramona!" Emily raised her voice level. She didn't have to understand the language to know that she wasn't listening.

Not wanting to get into trouble Ramona went, although she wasn't very happy at all.

"I was going to call a paediatrician but now I think I'm going to take her to the D.C. children's hospital," Aaron explained to Emily, "She's been crying all day. There has to be something going on. I just hope the ER doesn't have that long of a wait."

"That's a good idea," Emily nodded her head, "Text me when you figured out what's going on." She was worried about Elena too, but she was also worried about Aaron she couldn't imagine how worried h must be.

"I will," Aaron began to move to the door. Suddenly Elena's arm jolted and then her entire body began to shake. "Call 911!"

 **TBC**

* * *

 **A\N:** Oh no! What's wrong with Elena?


	6. Chapter 6

**A\N:** So here it is, the next chapter. Thank you so much to my friend and beta reader who helped me so much with this chapter. If there are any mistakes they are mind though not hers. I checked it over before posting it but there may still be some typos.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own anything.

 **Spoilers:** None

 **Warnings:** None

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

The sound of Elena's heart monitor beeping seemed to be in sync with the rain outside; every time the rain hit the window the heart monitor beeped. Aaron wasn't sure when it had started raining as he hadn't noticed it until the wind started to shake the rain onto the window. For hours he hadn't taken his eyes away from Elena. She looked so small in the hospital crib. He stood from his chair and leaned forward to give her a kiss on the forehead.

It had been nearly twelve hours since the ambulance brought Elena into the hospital and still the doctors weren't sure what was wrong with her. She still hadn't woken up from her coma and she laid in the hospital crib with wires in her and a tube running down her throat. One of the first tests that were done on Elena was an MRI, and the doctors hadn't liked how her brain was swelling. Aaron wasn't a doctor but he knew that was serious. After that they'd run more tests and all Aaron could do was hope that she couldn't feel pain as all of the needles and pricks were bound to be tremendously painful.

Now twelve hours later, sitting in the chair looking at her he wasn't sure what would happen. If the worst happened and she died he knew Ramona would never recover. Loosing her parents was bad enough but loosing her younger sister as well would cause her more emotional trauma that no amount of therapy would ever be able to fix.

"Mr. Shore," Alexander Huntington, Elena's doctor walked into the room, "We know what's causing your nieces coma. However it's far more serious then we'd like. She has meningitis. Which has causes the swelling on her brain and caused the seizure. We'll start her on an anti-biotic but I'm afraid that the disease may have already caused some brain damage or loss of hearing."

Aaron tried to process all of that information at once and he ran a hand over his face. "I thought meningitis was a disease children get vaccinated for. Are you telling me Elena and her sister aren't vaccinated?"

"We sent an urgent fax to the Houston public health and asked for Elena's medical records. Neither she nor her older sister Ramona have had their vaccinations. They also hadn't seen a doctor in quite some time."

Aaron sighed and shook his head wondering what his older brother was thinking, "Is it contagious? Elena has an older sister does this mean she has it too?" Aaron didn't want to imagine both girls being sick but he wanted to make sure Ramona got checked out before she got worse.

"The disease isn't airborne if her sister isn't sick by now chances are she doesn't have it."

"Good," Aaron signed, at least that was good news.

"We'd like to run a few more tests in a few hours but for now I'll let you update your family," Dr. Huntington said as he left the room and closed the door.

* * *

Emily sat in her office doing paper work while also keeping a close eye on Ramona. She'd brought her into West Wing early with her as she had lots of work to catch up on. Although Ramona had been asking about her younger sister she seemed to settle when Emily explained the doctors were doing everything they could for her. Alex had texted her around eight and explained that she and Tom had planned an activity for Ramona and Penny. Something that would take Ramona's mind off of Elena as well as her private school interview scheduled for later in the day. Since school started on Tuesday and the school had already made accommodations to give her an interview it couldn't be rescheduled

"All right Ramona Penny and Alex should be here soon why don't you clean up your toys." Emily looked up from her work around eleven o'clock. Ramona nodded her head and began putting away her dolls.

"Ramona guess what?" Penny didn't give Ramona time to answer as she ran into the office, "Mom made clues for us and we're going on a scavenger hunt to find my bear Callie! And once we find her we get a special surprise. Come on!" She took Ramona's hand.

"Bye Emily!" Ramona ran off with Penny.

"Wait girls!" Alex stopped them at the door, "Penny say hi to Ms. Rhodes first," She instructed. "And I think you still have some cleaning up to do," Alex noticed there were still a few toys lying around the office.

"Hi," Penny turned around and looked at Emily, "I'm sorry about Elena tell Mr. Shore that."

"Thank you Penny," Emily smiled at the girl, "You and Ramona have fun in your scavenger hunt. Ramona you listen to Mrs. Kirkman and be polite."

"Okay," Ramona finished cleaning up her toys and then went over to stand with Penny. "Let's go!" Ramona said in Spanish as she began to get restless, "Penny!" She tugged on the girl's hand. Penny looked at her mother not sure what to do.

"I think we should go now, I'll have Ramona back here at two thirty. I'll make sure she has lunch and I'll do her hair too," Alex turned to leave following the girls.

* * *

The scavenger hunt to find Penny's bear Callie took the girls all through the private residence. Penny reading each clue as they went. Ramona going along with her quite willingly and even talking in English when Alex reminded her too. The very last clue took them into the West Wing where on Tom's desk was Callie along with two other bears holding onto gift bags.

"My uniform!" Ramona spoke excitedly in Spanish as she sae one of the beats was wearing a near replica of the uniform she'd be wearing if she got accepted into he new school.

"Why don't you go and read the card Penny?" Tom prompted his daughter; he'd happily agreed to put the bears on his desk when Alex had suggested this idea. He knew the girls would love it.

"Dear Penny," Penny began to read the note out loud, "Sorry I had to go away for awhile. I forgot to tell you I needed to go and pick up my fiends Charlotte and Rosie from the teddy bear train station. They just arrived. Charlotte is for your new friend Ramona and Rosie is for your new friend Elena." She put the note down and turned to Ramona who was standing beside her. She wondered if she knew what was going on but got her answer when Ramona reached out to get the teddy beat with the school uniform.

"Mine?" She asked.

"Yeah sweetheart that's yours," Alex answered her. She was about o text Emily when the other woman walked into the room. Ramona running at full speed to her and hugging her.

"Emily look!" She held up the teddy bear, "Look! Charlotte, see that's her name," She began talking to herself in Spanish as she opened up the bag and squealed with happiness as she saw that the bag came with two more outfits for he new bear along with some new hair clips and a pretty headband for her.

Emily had tried to tell Tom and Alex that they didn't need to buy anything else for Ramona and Elena but they'd all but insisted. She had to say seeing the look on Ramona's face was worth it. Ramona was grinning from ear to ear and she was as happy as Emily had seen her so far. Surprising even herself she picked Ramona up and carried her over to the desk, "I hear that this teddy bear is for Elena. Why don't we go and bring to it to her after dinner with Nadia tonight."

'Yay!" Ramona cheered happily.

* * *

The interview Ramona had at Hillcrest Academy went better then Emily thought and they had enrolled Ramona almost immediately after seeing how smart she was. After taking her to get her new school uniforms Emily dropped her off at Nadia's office before going back to the White House. She was there for four more hours before meeting Nadia and Ramona at the D.C children's hospital.

Emily had gone to get clothe and some other tings for Aaron from his condo. And Nadia had brought him some leftovers of the Mexican dish that she'd made for dinner with Ramona's help. Ramona as it turned out loved to help cook and that was something Nadia was happy to have help with. She loved cooking and was glad Ramona was taking an interest in it.

"Hi," Emily walked up to the nurse's front desk outside of the PICU unit. It was a locked unit and they would need to be let in, although through the glass windows Emily could see in and she found herself wondering if Aaron would be okay with them showing up. She hadn't told them they were coming; actually they only sent a few texts back and fourth to each other in the past twenty-four hours. Emily knew most of his attention needed to be on Elena and so she was leaving him alone. That didn't mean she wasn't worried though as she was deeply worried, "We're here to see Elena Shore."

The nurse turned her head and looked back at her colleagues. As far as they knew the toddler didn't have any other family besides her uncle. Although they wondered if the young girl with dark curls was her older sister they'd heard Elena's uncle mention. "I'm going to need to see some ID. From both of you," The nurse requested.

"Of course," Emily dug her driver's license out of her purse and handed it over, "Aaron Shore is my boyfriend, that's his cousin and this is Elena's older sister," Emily explained.

"Alright," The nurse looked through the files and saw their names appear as to who might visit Elena. "You can go in. She's in room 612." The nurse pushed the button to unlock the door.

'Alright Ramona," Emily decided to pick Ramona up, "Now remember we talked about how all of the children here are very sick. You need to be very good and quiet. Remember Elena's in a deep sleep and she can't be woken up. She's sleeping because her body needs to rest. There will probably be other children in her room and maybe other family members."

"I give Elena present," Ramona smiled happily. "Make her feel better."

"Ramona remember she's sleeping and she can't be woken up," Emily tried to explain again. She was starting to think bringer her here was a mistake.

"I have an idea," Nadia saw a sign for a children's playroom and realized that might be a better place for Ramona to wait. Then Aaron could go there and see her. She knew though that it would take a lot of convincing for Ramona to go with her. She turned to the four year old and began explaining to her in Spanish about how they could go look at the toys to see what Elena could play with when she was better. After that didn't work it took Nadia promising ice cream later for Ramona to kiss Emily on the cheek and let her place her on the ground.

"Good idea," Emily mouthed to Nadia as she left with the young girl. Emily continued to walk down the hallway and into Elena's hospital room. Like she'd suspected there was another child in the room. Emily looked at the closes curtains on wither side of the room and wondered what she should do. She didn't want to enter the wrong curtain so she sent Aaron a text hoping he'd get it. A few seconds later Aaron pulled the curtain off from the area on the far side of the room.

He looked awful. His hair had lost all its gel and his eyes were red and puffy from crying. On top of that he looked tired and simply worn out. It had been a long two weeks and he wasn't sure how much more bad news he could take. At this point the doctors didn't have much to say on Elena's condition, as she wasn't bettering better but no worse either.

"Aaron," Emily walked to him and simply hugged him. It only took a few seconds for him to relax in her arms and begin to cry a little. It then hit Emily how awful these past few weeks had been for him on an emotional level. She knew she needed to be there for and to support him. Taking his hand she led him back to the curtained off area in which he came.

It took her few moments to adjust to seeing Elena in a coma, a tube stuck down her throat and a breathing mask on. She looked much smaller then she actually was in the crib. Emily reached out to gently touch her hand being carefully of all of the wires and tubes. She didn't know much about medicine or the disease itself but Emily guessed that Elena being in a coma for even one day was not a good sign. She sat down in a plastic hospital chair and waited for Aaron to speak first knowing he still needed time to process her being here.

"How- where's Ramona?" He asked as he looked at his girlfriend. He moved his chair closer to hers and took her hand. After being so worried about Elena it was so nice to finally have someone to lean on.

"Ramona's here. She's in the play area with Nadia. She got enrolled into Hillcrest Academy and I got her uniform and everything. I have all of the information here for you. I wasn't able to sign off on all of the forums. But I explained our situation and we can send them in with Ramona on Tuesday," Emily took out a package from a bag and placed them on the small table in the room along with a pen and a small flashlight.

"Thanks Em, for everything," Aaron leaned in to her and placed a gentle yet sweet kiss on her lips. She had know idea how much her support meant to him especially now. She ahd aid before all this began that she was nervous about looking after two young girls but Aaron could not see any problems. It was clear she'd already grown attached to them and he suspected Ramona already loved Emily. This he wasn't surprised about, although having very little experience with children Emily was good with them.

"The Kirkman's got Ramona and Elena teddy bears, with some clothes. Ramona wanted to come and give Elena her's. I brought you some clothes and Nadia put in some leftovers of the Mexican dish she mad for Ramona. She said it was one your mother used to make." Emily pointed to the bag in which she'd pulled the folder from Hillcrest from.

Aaron immediately knew what dish Emily was talking about and smiled at the thought. Standing up he took Emily's hand, "Lets go and see Ramona and Nadia. We can all come back and see Elena in a little while," He led Emily out of the room and towards the playroom. At first he was going to ask Emily to sit with Elena but he wanted to keep being around her.

As it was getting to be late at night Ramona and Nadia were the only ones in the playroom. Ramona was busy playing with the play kitchen when Aaron and Emily walked into the room. Ramona looked up and took off into Aaron's arms. Aaron lifted her up and hugged her tightly, burying his face into her shoulder as he cried. Seeing her was just what he needed.

"Tio Aaron come play," Ramona spoke in Spanish and Aaron nodded and led her back to the toys. For an hour he played anything she wanted to. Sometimes Ramona would invite Emily or Nadia to play to but for the mot part she just wanted to be with Aaron. Her uncle was still the adult she was the most familiar with, and he was certainly the one she loved the most. She grinned and laughed as he played with her and didn't notice Emily was smiling as well.

"Alright," Emily stood up as Ramona yawned for the firth time in ten minutes, "I think its time to go. You're tired and we need to get you settled at Nadia's apartment. She's going to be looking after you because I need to work."

"No!" Ramona clung to Aaron, "I want to stay with Tio Aaron!" She began to cry.

Aaron kissed her gently on top of her hair and whispered soothing things to her in Spanish. Once he was able to get her settled down he looked at her, "Emily's right you need your sleep. I think though that before you go you can see Elena. I hear you have something to give her."

"Oh yeah," Ramona had forgotten all abut her sister's teddy bear. She went to the gift-wrapped bag to get it. "It's a teddy bear. I's going to make her all better," She told him in Spanish,

"Well lets go give to to her then," Aaron lifted her up with her and walked back to the room. Once they were there and Ramona started to cry at the sight of her sister he got worried. Maybe bringing her wasn't the best idea.

"I give it," Ramona said in English as she opened up the bag and reached down to place the chocolate brown teddy bear in her sister's crib. "She be better," She said.

"Alright I …" Emily couldn't believe her eyes. She was sure she just saw Elena's hand move. Thinking she was just seeing things she turned back to what she was saying before. However her eyes began to flutter.

"She's waking up!" Aaron saw his nieces eyes flutter as well. He leaned over the bars of the crib to kiss her forehead before pressing the nurse call button on the wall.

 **TBC**

* * *

 **A\N:** I hope you liked this chapter and please remember to review.


	7. Chapter 7

**A\N:** Sorry for the delay in posting this chapter. I've been really busy in real life and have been going through some personal problems. I am starting to get better now though. Thank you as always to my beta reader for helping me so much with this chapter.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own anything you recognize.

 **Spoilers:** None

 **Warnings:** None

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

 **Eight Weeks Later:**

Even after Elena had woken up it had taken her almost eight weeks to recover fully. It was now early November, and on what was shaping on to be a busy week for Aaron and Emily, Elena was released from the hospital.

A few days after Elena had woken up Aaron had handed in his resignation to the President. Kirkman didn't want to accept in but understood that Aaron's family had to come first. He had promised Aaron a position fitting for him later. In the meantime he had given Aaron the job as Director of Interns. Which, was turning out to be a headache for Aaron, as he had to deal with the arrogance and sense of entitlement a lot of the White House interns had. He'd already yelled at quite a few of them and told most of them off. There were only three out of the fifteen that he could see going far in Washington.

Since Aaron's resignation Emily had taken over as Chief of Staff and as such had been very busy. When Aaron was at the hospital with Elena Emily has been the main care person for Ramona. She woke up with her early on school days and drove her to the before school program. She'd then go to work and pick Ramona up at four o'clock taking her back to the White House and leaving her with Alex Kirkman. Although Ramona preferred to stay with Emily, she loved following her around and copying her. Her schoolteacher even explained in her school agenda that she was teaching some of her new friends how to play 'Chief of Staff'.

It was a hard adjustment at first Ramona was now doing incredibly well at school. Her teachers wrote in her agenda about how sweet and caring she was and how smart she was as well. Her art skills were only improving and so far her not having any parents hadn't ben much of an issue. Half of her classmates were being raised by nannies anyways so Emily figured it wasn't ever going too much of a big deal until she got older. Emily hoped by then that she'd be able to understand what happened to her parents.

Elena was doing much better now. When she first woke up doctor's had been afraid that she might have brain damage or deafness. But after tests positive tests she responded well to the medication. The only problem now was that because of her illness she'd be a bit behind on walking. So Aaron and Emily needed to really work on that with her. It would be hard, especially with both of them being so busy but the doctors told them how important it was. The longer it took Elena to walk the more further behind she'd be from her peers in gross motor development.

"Mr. Shore Ms. Rhodes, "Elena's doctor walked into the private consultation room, followed by two police detectives, "I'm afraid we have some questions we need to ask," He sat down in a chair and laid out some x-rays.

"Why are the police here?" Aaron asked. He looked the police detectives with some confusion.

"I just have some questions regarding Elena's x-rays and scans and I'd like the police here."

"Whose with Elena?" Aaron demanded

"DCFS is with her at the moment in the children's play area around the corner." One of the detectives spoke calmly, "Now please let the doctor talk."

"Aaron," Emily took his hand in an effort to calm him down.

Once Aaron was calm the doctor began, "I've noticed quite a few healed bones and scaring on Elena. Unfortunately this type of pattern is usually common in children who suffered from physical abuse. Now I know that you just received custody so I'm not accusing you. I'd just like to know what happened in Elena and Ramona's home life."

Aaron shook his head, "Javier wouldn't-" He closes his eyes and rubbed his forehead with his thumbs. This was a lot of information to take in. "My brother and his wife loved the girls. They wouldn't; do anything to hurt then."

"Did you see them often?" One of the Detectives asked.

"No. I actually never met Elena face to face until I picked them up in Texas. And I only met Ramona whens she was a baby. But I know I-" Aaron shook his head again. He tried to remember his own childhood. Sure his parents, especially his father could sometimes get physical and rough but that's how it was back then. It was noting horribly bad, Just a slap when he did something wrong. He didn't want to imagine Javier could do anything worse.

"Your older niece Ramona. I'd like you to bring her in so we can test her and ask her some questions," The doctor requested.

"What would that do?" Aaron didn't want Ramona to go through all of that trauma. Not when she was doing so well. "We'll talk to her about it and mention it to her psychiatrist. Their parent are dead so you can't file any charges."

"If that's what you wish," The doctor stood up, as did the police officer's they all stood and left the room leaving Aaron and Emily alone.

"I can't believe he'd do something like that," Aaron seethed with anger. All respect he ever had from his brother gone. "He did make a nasty drunk and he loved to drink. I should have picked it up somehow." Aaron just couldn't believe that all of this was true. He did however believe the doctors. He shook his head thinking about how his brother could hurt own children like that. And how at such young ages Ramona and Elena had been through way too much.

"No," Emily shook her head, "You were had way across the country when you called and texted. You wouldn't have known. They're safe with us now. They have all of their vaccinations now and we're doing everything we can for them. Let's go and get Elena. I actually have a doctor's appointment here in half an hour. So it's a good thing we took two cars."

"Is everything alright? I thought you were busy preparing for the Canadian Prime Minister's visit tomorrow. Aaron said as they began walking down the hallway.

" I am," Emily responded, "But this something I've been holding of for awhile. I have most things in place or tomorrow and the appointment shouldn't take to long. By the way Alex mentioned to the Prime Minister's Wife that Ramona and Elena are about the same ages as their children. So on Saturday Ramona and Elena are invited to play with the kids for a while. The Prime Ministers kids are six months two and four. Two boys and a girl the girl is Ramona's age so hopefully they get along."

"I'm sure they will. The Canadian Prime Minster is apparently very down to earth and nice. Most people that meet him love him and he's certainly well liked in Canada. He's defiantly, wanting to put Canada on the world stage. His wife comes from a family of politicians too so she and Alex should get along well."

"I know," Emily laughed a little, and then stopped. "Do you miss it?" She asked turning serious, "The job?"

"A little," Aaron admitted, "But it was the right decision to make. Besides you make a excellent Chief of Staff," He gave her a quick kiss on the lips.

Emily sighed a little, she missed being close to Aaron, "I'm going to get home as quickly as I can tonight," She breathed agansit his lips.

Home? Aaron thought it was interesting how she was referring to his apartment s home. Even though she still had her own condo.

"Ara, Em!" Elena babbled happily as she saw Aaron and Emily walk into the children's play area.

"Hi sweetheart," Aaron took her into his arms hugged her as tightly as he could. He kissed her dark curls a bunch of times. He didn't; know what else to do. "I love you so much Elena."

Elena lifted her head and placed a big kiss on Aaron's cheek before blowing a kiss towards Emily.

Emily didn't know if she loved Elena and Ramona yet but she knew she certainly cared a lot for them. She missed them when she was working and was always anxious to hear and about Ramona's day at school.

"Em," Elena reached for her, "Pay?"

"Later sweetheart?" Emily kissed her. Looking at the DCFS agent she smiled. She wondered how hard her job must be always seeing children in tough situations. She was sure she'd never be able to do it, "Thanks for looking after her."

"Oh I as no problem. She's such a sweet girl," The agent smiled as she gave Elena a wave and then left the room.

"I'll see you later alright Elena," Emily promised her, "You're going with Tio Aaron now." She gave Aaron a quick kiss on the lips.

"You sure you're alright Em?" Aaron had the strangest feeling something was off with her. She'd been acting out of sorts for almost a week. "Do you need me to go with you?"

"No, no," Emily shook her head quickly, "It's all right, this is kind of a…. personal appointment," She tried her best to explain, "I'll explain later I promise."

"Alright," Aaron nodded as he watched her leave the room. He hoped she did talk to him.

* * *

"You texted you had the custody forms?" Aaron walked into Kendra's office. He walked over to his friend and co-worker and smiled, "Everything look okay?" He sat down at the desk and watched as Kendra looked up from the paperwork.

"Yeah everything looks alright," Kendra looked at Aaron. "The paperwork is all in order. Now you just need to think about someone to look after Ramona and Elena if something ever happens to you," Kendra knew it wasn't something Aaron wanted to think about but it was something the custody agreement required.

Aaron didn't think this would ever be a possibility. But then he knew that his brother and sister in-law never thought they'd die. He also knew the chance of dying was there, especially since he worked in the White House. His mind immediately went to his parents but then he thought about their age, and if they knew about the abuse Ramona and Elena suffered for years. He knew, as uncomfortable as that conversation was going to be he needed to have it with them.

Then Emily came into his mind, although to be honest she never really left, He was often thinking of her. Emily was amazing with Ramona and Elena and practically looked after Ramona on her own when Aaron was at the hospital with Elena. Ramona and Elena loved Emily and if anything happened to Aaron her looking after them wouldn't be that big of a change, as Aaron hoped she'd be a consent presence in their lives. Then he thought of something else that would work. Something he knew would be a big step forward but one h hoped she would b okay with.

"How hard would it be for Emily and I to have joint-custody of Ramona and Elena?"

"Honestly? Considering you're not married and the courts would wonder how long you'd last. It's going to be a problem. I can though put in a stimulation that would make it easier for Emily to receive joint custody if you wee ever to get married. That would require both your signatures though."

"Alright," Aaron nodded his head as he stood up, "Emily's in a meeting now and I have to o pick up Ramona but I'll talk to you later."

"Sure," Kendra nodded her head. She wondered to herself as Aaron left if Emily would be okay with all of this.

* * *

For the first time since she had started school Aaron had picked Ramona up. But all she wanted to do when he picked her up was talk to Emily. She was so excited about her first birthday party invitation she had gotten. So when Aaron brought her back to the White House for so Alex could watch her she nagged to go and see Emily Aaron agreed if only because he wanted to see Emily as well.

"Emily! Emily!" Ramona let go of Aaron's hand and raced towards Emily's desk, "Look what I gotted!" She waved an invitation in front of Emily's face, not understanding that Emily was swamped with work,

Despite being busy Emily didn't want to turn away the girl. So she looked at the invitation. She could see it was for a birthday part and realized right away how excited the girl was. It made her so happy that Ramona was finally able to be happy, "A Princess themed birthday party well we're just going to have to get you all dressed up aren't we? How about we go and get our hair and nails done and you can get a princess dress."

"Yay!" Ramona cheered happily as she lunged forward to hug Emily.

"Are you going to be able to get the time off Em?" Aaron wondered, as he knew right now she was pretty busy with everything.

"I'll figure it out," Emily didn't; want to disappoint Ramona. "I'll be a little less busy after the Canadian Prime Minister visits."

"Oh," Aaron suddenly remembered, "Did I tell you I got the house I put a bid in for?" Ever since Ramona and Elena had moved in with him Aaron knew he'd need to find a bigger place soon. So, as he spent the sleepless nights by Elena's hospital crib he looked for houses. One night he found the perfect one; it had everything he wanted and more. Four bedrooms a finished basement, newly renovated kitchen, open concept downstairs, a huge backyard and pool. It was a little more then he was willing to spend but when he went to see it he loved it.

"That's great," Emily grinned up at him, "When do you move in?"

"Two weeks. I've already received good offers on my condo," He replied he wanted to say more but Ramona was pulling his hand towards the door as she talked to him in Spanish about wanting to see Penny and Elena, "Oh and Kendra needs to see us later."

"Why?"

"Tio Aaron!" Ramona sighed heavily.

"Just to go over a few things I mentioned you being a guardian to the girls if we ever get married," He said.

"What?" Emily's hear felt like it stopped beating momentarily but was unable to say more as her cell phone rang. Once she was finished with the phone call Aaron and Ramona had left. She ran to the bathroom as she had an awful feeling about everything.

* * *

It was almost five o'clock and Aaron had left to go back to his condo with Ramona and Elena. Emily had wanted to talk to Alex and Kendra all day but she needed Aaron to be gone for the night otherwise he may have gotten suspicious.

"Alright Em," Alex looked at her friend with some confusion, "What's with all the secrecy?" Emily had said she needed to see her and Kendra but hadn't said about what and when Alex had mentioned it to Tom she found out she'd blocked off an hour and half for this conversation in her calendar, So here they were in Kendra's office. Emily for het part was rubbing her hands over her skirt.

"I…." Emily's mouth struggled to forum the words, "I'm pregnant. Twins. I had an OBGYN appointment today."

Alex wanted to be happy for her. She and Aaron would make great parents. But seeing Emily's troubled look led look made her re-consider that option altogether. She looked at Kendra and they both silently decided to just let Emily talk for a while.

"And a part of me wants to be excited but there's this other part that knows that this is a horrible time for a baby. Let alone two babies! I mean I'm finally where I've always wanted to be in my career and Aaron; he has enough trouble with Ramona and Elena. I love him and the girls so much, more then I ever thought I could. I know I want to someday marry Aaron but when he mentioned something about me and him both having custody of the girls today I just about lost it."

"You don't have to do that," Kendra lightly informed her friend, "Aaron wanted you to have joint custody but that's tricky considering you're not married. So I suggested something that would make it easier of you do get married."

Emily ran her hands through her hair and sighed, "I don't know Kendra. I don't know what I want. I wish for once my life didn't throw some kind of loop. It seems as though since August Aaron and I haven't had a break." She thought back to when they had gotten the girls.

"Life with children and life in general isn't always easy," Alex pointed out, "I wasn't expecting to be First Lady overnight but you figure it out Emily. And I think… no I know that Aaron will be okay with all of this but you need to tell him. And you need to do it before he figures it out on his own. With twins it's only going to get harder and harder to hide. How far along are you?"

"Seven weeks. I know I need to tell him. I'm just so scared I mean four children under five is a huge mess, especially in our jobs. He already has an Au Pair in mind but I don't know if she'll be willing to look after four children. I don't even think I want it move in with Aaron right away. I just keep thinking that when I tell him he'll ask me to marry him and that'll make it even worse. I don't want to marry him just because I'm pregnant. I know Aaron is who I want to spend the rest of my life with but I think we need at least another year before we think about marriage. I know Aaron won't let me do much work when he finds out and I'm mot looking forward to him always worrying about me. The doctor said I could keep working as long as I try to keep the stress down as much as possible. She did warn me about risks though. Emily went on, "And don't worry Kendra I made her sign a non disclosure agreement," Emily handed Kendra over a file folder.

"You just have to tell him Em, and know that he'll be thrilled," Alex assured her.

Alex then began talking about all things baby and befogs she knew it Emily had to get back to work. She walked back to her office and got started. Since she was used to working through colds and flus her pregnancy nausea symptoms were easy for her to manage. At least for now although she kept telling herself that it might get worse. Luckily she was mostly finished her work by eight o'clock and decided to go home. She was more tied then she'd ever been and she knew she needed sleep. She wanted to go back to her condo, as she wasn't ready for Aaron to find out about the pregnancy. However what she wanted more hen anything was to see the girls and to sleep in Aaron's arms. So she decided that she'd go to his condo for a little bit and then make some excuse to go back to her condo.

* * *

An hour later using her own key Emily walked into the condo and was surprised to see Ramona run towards her. Ramona's bedtime was at eight o'clock and she should already be asleep.

"You came home!" Ramona hugged her.

"Hi sweetie," Emily leaned down and kissed the top of her dark curls, "Why aren't you in bed?"

"She wouldn't go to sleep without seeing you first," Aaron told her, "So now that you've seen Emily say goodnight Ramona," Aaron instructed.

"No!" Ramona shook her head, "I want to play with Emily!" She grabbed a hold of Emily's hand and looked up at her hoping she'd let her stay up.

"No, no Ramona you go to bed now or you won't get to meet Charlotte tomorrow," Aaron told her sternly.

"Charlotte Morveu? The Prime Minister's daughter?" Emily asked. "You told her?"

"She's from Canada. Canada is a different country," Ramona told her what she learned. "I want to play with her."

"Then say goodnight to Emily and lets get you to bed," Aaron told her.

"Goodnight Emily," Ramona reached up to hug Emily.

"Goodnight sweetheart," Emily bent down and kissed her on the cheek and hugged her. She watched her take Aaron's hand and go up the stairs to bed.

Emily, not having the energy to do anything else made her way up the stairs to Aaron's bedroom. She took off her clothes and put on one of Aaron's. Lifting up the shirt over her abdomen she could see her stomach was rounding and she knew Aaron would be able to figure it out. She needed to tell him tonight.

"I figured you'd be downstairs watching the news," Aaron walked into the bedroom a little confused. Nine o'clock was much to early for Emily to be tired let alone for her to come home from work "Is everything for tomorrow set up?" He walked towards her, he went to hold her on hi arms but Emily moved away. "Em?" He raised an eyebrow, "Are you okay?" He felt as thought he was asking her that a lot but he was starting to get concerned.

"Yeah," Emily nodded as she put her hair up into a loose ponytail, "I just… you know monthly stuff." She lied. She hated how effortless it was to lie to him but it was so easy.

"Okay," He'd noticed some little things about her that made him curious. Her trips to the washroom and paled face and how she never drank any coffee he offered her, "Can we talk?" He walked towards her again but tis time she bolted away to run into the washroom.

Whatever new cologne Aaron was using was making Emily's stomach do summersaults. She finished throwing up and washing her face and hands. When she walked back into the bedroom Aaron wasn't looking very happy and Emily knew he had figured it out.

"You're pregnant aren't you?" He was somewhere between hurt and angry. He'd asked her if something was wrong and she'd lied to him. He had every right to know and she lied to him multiple times.

 **TBC**

* * *

 **A\N:** Uh-oh. How is Aaron going to respond to the news?


	8. Chapter 8

**A\N:** Here's the next chapter I hope you like it. Thanks again to me beta reader. Things that Ramona says that are bad grammar like "hearded" are intentional as some young kids don't have perfect grammar. I figured Ramona still might not know how to talk properly in English.

 **Spoilers:** None

 **Warinings:** None

 **Spoilers:** None

* * *

 **Chapter 8**

Knowing there was no way out now Emily nodded her head. She watched as Aaron ran his fingers through his hair and began muttering in very fast Spanish. Emily didn't know what he was saying but if his facial expression and body language were anything to go by, it wasn't good. She thought about telling him how scared she was to tell him, how she was waiting for the right time but she decided to let him decide when he wanted to talk. After all she had anther piece of news to give him, which would only make this worse.

"That doctor's appointment today?" Aaron looked at Emily, hurt and anger clear in his voice, "Was that an OBGYN appointment?"

"Yeah," Emily nodded.

Aaron glared at her and shook his head, "Didn't you think I had a right to know. Or to have the option to go with you? You lied right to my face Emily. How I'm I supposed to be okay with that?" He didn't think he'd ever been this hurt by a girlfriend before. He was starting to wonder if maybe the idea of them as a couple was a good idea. If he couldn't trust her then he didn't need her in his life. He knew she could lie, knew how to be sneaky and underhanded, as you needed to be in politics. Especially if you wanted to get very far. But Aaron never imagined she'd lie right to hid face, especially about something so important as their child.

"Of course I did!" Emily spat angrily as she reacted to his accusation, "It was just hard to tell you. And I wanted to know for sure. It's twins by the way," She added, "I'm-we're having twins," She reached into her pocket and dug out an ultrasound picture and offered it to him.

"Twins," Aaron's eyes went wide as he took the picture and studied it, "If I hadn't asked when we're you going to tell me?"

"Soon, it's going to be noticeable in a few weeks," Emily told him, "And before you ask I can still work. I just need to keep the stress down as much as possible. If not I may have to go on bed rest. Twin pregnancies are already high risk, so my job on top of that and my doctor isn't too happy right now. She's going to be monitoring me closely.

Aaron opened his mouth and then closed it again. He really didn't' have anything he felt like he needed to say. Not right then when he was still very angry, "Let me know what I can do to help. Even if we're not dating I stull want-still deserve to be in my children's lives?

"Are you breaking up with me?" Emily tried to keep her emotions in check.

"I don't know Em! You lied to me multiple times today, about our children! I know I should be supporting you but since you don't want that anyways I just think maybe what we need is some space.

Emily could feel tears coming down her face; She didn't want to argue with Aaron though. So she turned on her heals, yelling over her shoulder she yelled.

Neither Aaron or Emily got much sleep that night as they both had a lot of thinking to do. So going into work the next morning and seeing each other was not something that they were not looking forward to. Still though they needed to act professional even if all of the Senior Staffers an even some of their aids knew something was wrong. Since the Prime Minister and his family were coming at ten o'clock Aaron brought the girls in early and just let them sleep in the residence. He brought fancy clothes for them to wear later as well as toys and activities to keep them busy.

"No! Elena! No!" Ramona dropped the toys she was playing with as she saw her younger sister take off her shoes and throw them. "Elena," She crawled to get the shoes and then tried to take her sister into her arms.

"Ah!" Elena shook her head as she squirmed and finally broke out of her sister's hold. She tried to crawl away but Ramona picked her up again.

"You need shoes on!" Ramona attempted to put the shoes on but Elena was not happy. She began to scream.

"Ramona," Aaron stood from his desk. "Don't worry about your sisters shoes. Let me worry about that. Can you just play while I finish up some work?" He knew that was a lot to ask. More and more Ramona was starting to want to help with Elena. Unfortunately Elena did not want to be helped at all. Aaron momentarily thought Ramona woukd be happy to hear about the babies. His thoughts however were interrupted with Elena crying again.

"Alright," Aaron decided he wasn't going to get any more work done. "Let's see if we can get Elena dressed for the day," He walked from his desk to the couch and picked up Elena's backpack.

"Tio Aaron! The door!" Ramona called out in Spanish as she heard someone knock on the door, "Maybe its Emily!" She said excitedly.

"It's Seth!" Seth called out much to Ramona's disappointment. She groaned and sat down on the floor. She missed Emily and wanted to see her.

"Come in!" Aaron attempted to pick up Elena. The toddler having now taken off her clothes and was working on her diaper.

"Ed!" Elena ran towards him and held up her arms to be held.

Seth raised an eyebrow and tried not to laugh, he knew now why the blinds were drawn in the office. Elena was only wearing a diaper. "Emily sent me to get Ramona or Elena," He announced, giving his best friend a curious look. He knew something had to be wrong otherwise Emily would be in here with Aaron helping him out herself.

"I want to see Emily!" Ramona ran to get her backpack and sped over to Seth, "Let's go now!" She said excitedly, "Emily can braid my hair and she can help me with my new dress!"

"Yeah alright," Aaron nodded his head as he finally managed to get Elena into his arms. The toddler was screaming and crying. She was able to walk a little on her own now and because of that she hated to be held or carried. She was curious about everything she could explore and see.

"Bye Tio Aaron!" Ramona waved as she walked out of the room with Seth.

Seth knew he shouldn't ask Ramona for information but he was desperate at this point. It wasn't just for the gossip, it was mostly because he cared and wanted to help out his friends. "Did Emily spend the night last night at your condo?" He asked Ramona as he led her to Emily's office.

"No, but I hearded Tio Aaron and Emily argue last night," Ramona told him, "They were angry! Emily wasn't there this morning."

"Oh, that's not good,' Seth shook his head. He knew that Emily and Aaron loved each other and wondered what happened to cause them to fight.

"No," Ramona agreed. As they reached Emily's office Ramona opened the door and ran in, "Emily!" She ran to the woman and hugged her tightly.

"Ramona," Emily picked her up and hugged her. She put her on the ground again and looked at her, "You have your backpack?" She smiled, "Good.

Four hours later Aaron walked into the residence smiling as he heard multiple children laugh. When Ramona and Charlotte had met they'd discovered they were writing the same outfit. This had made them very happy and so they decided to hold hands and proclaim they were twins. Alex and the Prime Minister's wife Abigail took them and the other kids up to the residence to play. Aaron deciding to get some work done in the meantime. Now he knew the President and the Prime Minister were almost done meeting so he decided to come up and see if he could take Ramona and Elena for a bit.

"Tio Aaron" Ramona stood up and raced toward her Uncle, "Charlotte taughted me French!" She spoke in Spanish as she took his hand and pulled him over to where she was playing with Elena, Penny, Charlotte and Charlotte's younger brother Alexandre. "She's my bestest friend! I'm moving to Ottawa with her!"

Aaron couldn't; help but laugh, "Oh are you now? How do you plan on doing that?" He wondered as he sat down on the carpet.

"Because we're twins," She grinned happily.

"Were going to Daddy's big party tonight," Charlotte added, "We're going to dance," She proclaimed and both girls began to dance.

"Oh no," The Prime Minster's wife Abigail shook her head, "I told you Charlotte Daddy's party is just for grown up's. You an your brothers are going to stay at the hotel with a babysitter."

"No," Charlotte shook her head. Then looking at Ramona she asked, "Can Ramona come?"

"Leo can watch your kids," Alex spoke up, "Ramona and Elena are staying here too so its perfect."

"That's very kind," Abigail smiled, turning to Leo she asked, "Is that okay?"

"Okay," Leo shrugged his shoulders. He knew he didn't have say in the matter. Plus he secretly liked watching hid younger sister anyways. Even the other children he didn't mind. It was much better then having to go to the gala in his opinion. Even better Aaron was insisting on paying him for watching Ramona and Elena.

"Yay!" Ramona and Charlotte jumped on and cheered so loudly they startled Charlotte's younger brother six-month-old Henry.

Seven hours later the dinner honouring the Prime Minister was in full swing, and going great. Still though, Emily couldn't help think about Ramona and Elena, she didn't know if it was because she was pregnant, or because they were starting to feel like her daughters but they kept coming up in her mind. When she saw that it was past their bedtime she wondered if they were really sleeping, and when it started to thunder and lighting she wondered if Ramona was doing okay. And even tough she and Aaron had been avoiding each other she knew Aaron was worried as well. Near ten o'clock she somehow managed to take a break from the party and go up to the residence just to check on the girls. When she got there she could hear Ramona sobbing.

"Ramona," Emily raced towards her as quick as she could in her heals, "Come here," She lifted her up, "You're okay. You're safe."

"She started crying an hour ago and it only go worse, Penny said she's afraid of water I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to-" Leo began to explain..

"It's okay," Emily held up her hand as she settled Ramona down on the couch. "The rain can't hurt you. It's not going to hurt you. You know that right?" She assured her.

Ramona slowly nodded her head. She remembered what her psychologist had been helping her with but she was still scared. She knew though that nothing was ever going to hurt her like the Hurricane did and that water was safe, "The noise is scary." She admitted as she rubbed her eyes.

"I can put on lullaby music on," Penny suggested. "Mom did that for me when the thunder storms scared me."

Ramona looked at Emily and shook her head; "I want to stay with you."

Emily felt her heart surge for a moment. She wished she could stay with the girl as well, but she knew she had to get back to the party. "I'll tell you what, you stay out here with me until you fall asleep. Then I'll carry you into Penny's room to sleep."

Rubbing her eyes Ramona nodded her head, she laid down on Emily's lap, "I love you Emily," She said as she closed her eyes.

"I love you too," Emily leaned down and kissed her.

The dinner for the Prime Minister was on Saturday night and he and his family stayed in D.C. for another two days. Leaving on Monday with Ramona and Charlotte both very upset, as they had to say goodbye. On Tuesday President Kirkman asked Aaron to be the National Security Advisor, to which he said yes. So the rest of the week was full of meetings and speeches for Aaron. He and Emily had to work professionally together for the week even though they still hadn't been able to work things out. It was breaking both of their hearts as they wanted to talk and work things out but nether on knew what to say. They were both struggling and hurting.

On Friday D.C. was in the middle of a snowstorm and blackout so the White House was bister then usual. Luckily the White House was running on generator power. Aaron and Emily were both looking down on tier phones as they got into the elevator either one of them noticed each other until the elevator stopped and the lights flicked off and then back on again.

"Oh great!" Emily sighed miserably as she taped her phone. She shook her head and then looked up and realized Aaron was looking up at her. She couldn't deal with talking to him yet. Not after he go so angry the last time. "Lets just wait until this starts working again," She took a long drink of water and ran a hand over her face, "I already have a headache I don't need anything else." "

"What did I do?" Aaron went on the defensives and then saw how bad Emily looked. She was pale and looked very tired and week. None of that was good especially consider she was pregnant. "Em," He reached out to touch her arms but she pulled away. "Emily!" He tried again

"Aaron!" She shook her head as tears flew down her cheeks, "I love you and Ramona and Elena and…I understand if you don't want to be with me but you can't." She shook her head, "You can't reach out like that."

"What? No! Em I was angry and scared. I didn't mean that. I don't want to break up with you. I love you Emily and I know Ramona and Elena do too. And I love our twins. But I love you too and I'm worried about you. I know you love your job but I think what we need to do is tell President Kirkman about the babies. Then we can get your caseload lightened a bit."

"We?" Emily looked up at him, "You want to come with me?" It made her smile a little bit to think Aaron was willing to do that.

"Yeah. Like I said they're my babies too. My responsibility. So what do you say?"

Emily pulled Aaron down towards her and kissed him. She was eager to feel his lips on her's again and that eagerness showed. She was soon tugging on his jacket.

"Emily," Aaron moaned, "They could fix the elevator any time now."

Emily kissed him on the lips once more before pulling away. She smirked a bit, "Yeah I guess you're right. I mean we'll have plenty of time to do that in our new house."

"Our new-" Aaron looked at her in shock, "You want to…" He didn't want her to think he wasn't thrilled with the idea, "Em that's great. Of course I want you to move with me. Ramona and Elena will be happy too." He kissed her, "Although we move in two weeks."

"I'll move some of my stuff then but I'll keep my apartment for two months. My landlord needs that much time anyways to find another renter."

"How about I let Nadia watch the girls tonight and we can go over to your apartment," He suggested, "I can help you pack and then maybe we can finish what we were about to start."

"Or how about we finish up work early and go pick up Ramona from school and the get a pizza for dinner. We can all watch a movie together and then put the girls to bed. Then after we can have some fun." She kissed him again.

"Whatever you want," Aaron grinned. He was happy being here with her even if it did take nearly an hour to get the elevator up and running again.

Even though the elevator breakdown postponed there day Emily and Aaron were able to get out of work at five o'clock. Nearly an hour later they were at Ramona's school picking her up from the after school program.

"Emily!" Ramona stopped what she was doing and ran towards her, "Come and see this!" She tugged on Emily's hand, "I maded you a cake!" She showed Emily the block structure with toy cupcakes on top. "And Julia helped. She's my best friend."

"Hi," Emily waved at the other girl, "This looks good Ramona," Emily looked at the block structure, "But I think a real cake would be better. What do you say we get some after we get pizza for dinner? But we need to go now because I think your sister is getting hungry," She commented as Elena coil be heard crying in Aaron's arms.

"Bye Julia!" Ramona hugged her friend and then went to get her backpack. After saying goodbye to her teachers she left the classroom holding Emily's hand as she talked about her day, both Aaron and Emily listening intently.

 **TBC**

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 **A** \ **N:** Please leave a review and let me know what you think.

 **Up Next:** Another time jump with the gender reveal of the twins and the introduction of the girls new nanny.


	9. Chapter 9

**A\N:** So after the news Designated Survivor was canceled I lost most of my inspiration to write for the show. I was really hoping it would be picked up by another network or Netflix but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. I didn't want the story to end this way but unfortunately I have no more motivation to write. However don't worry I may get inspiration to write another Emron story one day.

 **Spoilers:** None

 **Warinings:** None

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 **Chapter 9**

 **Ten weeks later**

Emily woke up to the sound of the alarm, a little surprised at first, as she was usually up earlier with morning sickness. "You can turn off the-" Emily begin to say to Aaron but as she turned over he realized he wasn't there. She figured she must have slept through Ramona or Elena waking up, and started to get ready for work.

In early December Aaron had moved into the new house and Emily had helped, or done all that he would allow her to do. As it got closer to Christmas and Aaron still hadn't mentioned it Emily decided she needed to ask. At first he was angry, but then he admitted that he didn't know how to celebrate the holiday. As Emily had learnt a few weeks before, Ramona had wondered why Santa couldn't bring her Mommy and Daddy back. Being Catholic her grandparents had explained they were with God in Heaven. She apparently understood that God couldn't bring them back but she wasn't sure about Santa. That question had caused Aaron a lot of worry and anxiety, as he didn't know how best to answer it. So, after talking things over with Emily Aaron had talked to Ramona. Explaining that Santa couldn't bring her Mom and Dad back either was hard for both of them. After comforting Ramona as she cried Aaron realized he needed to give the girls the best Christmas he could.

That being said, on top of the Presents Ramona and Elena had received from Aaron and Emily, they had been completely spoiled by their co-workers at the White House. At the White House Christmas party they were almost the guests of honour and Ramona enjoyed greeting all the Ambassadors in attendance in their Native Language. She'd really taken a liking to learning languages and was incredibly good at it. The Ambassador from Switzerland told Ramona she'd probably be working at the U.N when she was older. That led to the question and explanation of the United Nations, which for a four-year-old Ramona understood quite well.

Elena had gotten the hang of walking and was now even running a little. She was saying some English words, but nothing in Spanish yet (something Aaron hoped would change) Both Aaron and Emily couldn't believe she'd be tuning two in March.

Aaron and Emily's relationship was only growing stronger as their argument seemed to bring a new understanding to their relationship. When Emily's apartment had been rented and she officially moved into the house she and Aaron entered some kind of routine. On Monday's, Wednesdays and Friday's Emily went into work as Aaron got both girls ready and drove Ramona to school, and then picked her up in after school care by six o'clock. On Tuesday's and Thursdays they switched. If either one of them had conflicting meetings they'd switch.

After today though things would be easier as the nanny Aaron and Emily had hired from Argentina was arriving tomorrow morning. She would spend the weekend with Aaron and Emily and the girls getting to know the routine and more importantly the girls. On Monday Emily had an OBGYN appointment that Ramon had begged to go to, so Aaron and Emily were going to take her with them and then take her to school. After that Ana-Sofia would be taking over, picking her up from a bus stop in the neighbourhood. Even though Aaron and Emily knew the girls would be well taken care of, they knew it would still be hard for the firs couple of weeks. That was why they were planning on trying for at least one of them to get home at a reasonable hour.

As she got downstairs Emily saw Aaron sitting on the couch, with both girls still half asleep beside him. Deciding not to bother them she waved and blew kisses before heading off to work. She hoped that she'd be able to talk to Aaron later on about why they'd woken up early.

For both Aaron and Emily though work was more busy then usual. A major immigration dispute meant Emily was in meetings with the Mexican ambassador almost all morning, while Aaron was trying to ensure there were no casualties along the borderline. Border disputes always hit Aaron hard, as he still had some family living in Mexico. And his parents were immigrants who had to work hard to attain American citizenship.

It was nearing four o'clock by the time Aaron sat down for a very late lunch with Seth and Lyor. After talking over the latest days events Seth changed the subject.

"So, tomorrow they'll be another woman living in your house, you know if the twins are both girls then that'll make you completely outnumbered," He added with a chuckle, "Living in a house with six girls. And just imagine your life with Ramona, Elena and the twins are all teenagers," He shuddered.

"You better spend all the time you need in the bathroom now, you won't get it then," Lyor added.

"First of all Ana-Sofia is living in a mini apartment in the basement, she has her own bathroom. Second, I don't care if the twins are girls. I love Ramona and Elena."

"Yeah, but we know you want a son," Seth waved a hand as if indicating a point.

"Most men do want a son," Lyor added, "Just like most woman prefer to have a daughter. It's easier to relate to a baby of your own gender in fact-"

"Alright I want s son," Aaron told them, cutting Lyor off before he could rattle of stats and statistics, "But I'd be fine with daughters too."

"Yeah until they start dating."

"I've decided that Ramona and Elena won't date, so if the twins are girls then they won't either," Aaron spoke rather confidently, "Because Ramona and Elena are already beautiful and if the twins look even little but like Emily then they will be as well."

"You're screwed man," Seth admitted as he began to laugh.

The international baggage claim area was crowded, but it was nothing Aaron and Emily hadn't been expecting. They'd arrived to the airport early just in case Ana-Sofia's plane had arrived early, but upon checking the flight board they saw that it was in fact half an hour late, thanks to an incoming snowstorm from Canada. Keeping the girls entertaining in a busy airport was a challenge, especially for Elena as all she wanted to do was walk around. So Emily walked slowly with her around the baggage claim stopping to talk to some people who commented about her outfit or asked how old she was. Finally the arrivals board said Ana-Sofia's plane had landed and twenty minutes later the people started to come into the baggage claim area. Ramona was sitting on Aaron's shoulders, as she wanted to be the one to see her first.

"There she is!" Ramona yelled loudly as she spotted Ana-Sofia walking into the baggage claim area.

"Go and give her your card," Aaron set Ramona on the ground and watched her run off to great Ana-Sofia with a hug. The twenty year old was grinning happily and lifted Ramona into her arms as she carried her back over to Aaron and Emily. She set her down on the ground and took her hand.

"Thank you," Ana-Sofia said, speaking carefully in English, "That was very nice."

"You're welcome," Aaron smiled, "It's nice to meet you in person," He said, as they spoken lots times over Facetime, "I'm Aaron and this is my girlfriend Emily, my nieces Ramona and this is Elena," He nodded to Elena who was back in her stroller now.

"It's nice to meet all of you," Ana-Sofia spoke in Spanish, as it was easier for her. Then looking at Emily she reminder she didn't know Spanish, "I'm sorry," She apologized.

"That's alright," I think I'm going to learn Spanish, "I might as well, considering I'm the only one who doesn't speak it. I do know some by the way your English is very impressive," She complimented.

"Thank you," Ana-Sofia smiled, she had been studying a lot, wanting to be good before her arrival. She knew that she'd be speaking both English and Spanish, so she wanted to be able to know most of what was being said in English.

"Lets get your bags, you must be tired," Aaron spoke up as he went to get a luggage cart, "We have some of the things you shipped over in your basement apartment already."

"Can I use the big boxes?" Ramona jumped in and asked. Ana-Sofia's things had come in two huge cardboard boxes. Ramona had so many ideas on what she could use them for.

"Of course," Ana-Sofia grinned, "I'll unpack everything, then we can make them into anything you want."

"That's very generous, but you don't start until Monday remember?" Emily reminder her.

"I know but getting to know them is playing," Ana-Sofia smiled.

Aaron and Emily shared a look. So far they were very happy with Ana-Sofia, she had definitely made a good first impression. The rest of the day was more or less the same Ana-Sofia let Ramona help her unpack her things and set up her new apartment. After that she and Ramona created a huge castle with the boxes and played in it for a while. In between playing with Ramona and Elena Ana-Sofia listned as Aaron and Emily explained what she'd be expected to do and what the girls daily routine looked like. They took a walk to Ramona's new school; bus stop a well as a drive to her school. On Sunday Ana-Sofia spent more time with the girls and even made them lunch which made Aaron and Emily happy as they'd made the right choice for a nanny.

On Monday morning Emily walked into the kitchen and saw Ramona talking to Aaron as she ate her cereal. Elena sitting in her high chair babbling to herself as she picked at the food on her tray.

"Emily!" Ramona jumped out of her chair and ran to give her a hug, "And babies!" Ramona touched Emily's stomach and then kissed it. "I love you," She grinned happily.

"And your cousins love you too," Emily told Ramona. She was very impressed Ramona wasn't acting jealous of the twins yet. Although she guessed once they were born she would. That was why she was reading books on older siblings being jealous of new babies.

Ramona walked back to the table to finish her breakfast and began singing her current favourite song; it was a Russian children's song Alex had taught her and she just loved it.

"Em! Em!" Elena began kicking her feet in her high chair.

Emily walked over to Elena and bent down and kissed her on the cheek, "Did Tio Aaron already feed you?"

"Yeah," Aaron responded from the counter where he was making Ramona's lunch, "Now she's just eating some cheerio's. You get something to eat; I'll look after them. You look after the babies."

"Cute," Emily walked over to him and gave him a quick kiss.

Aaron kissed her back as he rubbed her baby bump. "Daddy and Mommy and your cousins love you."

"I want Mommy and Daddy," Ramona looked up from her cereal and began to cry.

"I know you do," Aaron walked over to her, "But you know Emily and I love you just as much as Mommy and Daddy did. And that'll never change alright?"

"Not even with the twins?" She asked.

"No, Tio Aaron and I have enough love for you Elena and your baby cousins," Emily assured her, "Now do you want to wear your doctor outfit to my appointment? That way maybe you can help out."

"Oh that sounds like a good idea," Aaron said once he saw Ramona still didn't look so sure, "You finish eating then you can go and get it."

"I'm done," Ramona jumped out of her chair and ran out of the kitchen.

"She's hardly eaten anything," Aaron shook his head, "Her fear of water is getting better. But I really think we need to talk to her doctor about the babies and all of the changes happening."

"I agree," Emily nodded her head.

"Good morning," Ana-Sofia walked into the kitchen. Her basement apartment had a separate entrance so she needed to come in the house from the backyard.

"Good morning," Aaron greeted. In Spanish he began to go over what Ramona had gone through so far in the morning he and Emily having already explained the girls history to her before. Ana-Sofia was looking after Elena for the day and then picking up Ramona at her new bus stop after school. After that she'd have both girls all night until Aaron and Emily got home.

An hour later Aaron and Emily arrived with the girls at the doctor's office. Ramona's doctor outfit was a big hit. She was giving a clipboard and crayons so she could take notes and they even called her 'doctor Ramona' when Emily was brought into a room Emily's doctor brought Ramon a step stool so she could more easily look at ultrasound machine. As the doctor told Aaron and Emily everything looked good Ramona copied with a huge smile.

"You know what," Dr. Sturgeon's just got a great idea, "I think I have something that you're going to like Ramona," She had heard a bit about what had happened to Ramona and Elena at Emily's check-ups. Other then that she could see how interested Ramona actually was in everything that was going on, she wanted to help focus on that so Ramona wouldn't get jealous when the babies were born. If she were able to help them, she'd feel go about herself. "Can I give her a present?" She asked Aaron and Emily.

"Oh you don't have to…" Aaron assured her.

"No, no these are just sitting in storage, we have new ones. The office participates in an empathy project for local elementary schools. We use baby dolls that look very life like. This past September we got new ones. Our old ones are just sitting in storage. I think Ramona would really benefit from them."

"Oh wow! That's very generous, Ramona what do you say?" Aaron prompted her.

"Thank you Ma'am," Ramona hugged the doctor.

"Oh you're very welcome sweetheart," Dr. Sturgeons told her. "We can get some later, right now I think Tio Aaron and Emily want to know if they're having boys or girls."

"Yeah we do. Can you tell?" Emily asked.

"I can," Dr. Sturgeons, confirmed, "It looks like you're going to have two little bay girls."

"Yay!" Ramona cheered happily, that was what she had wanted, "No boys."

Aaron and Emily smiled and shared a kiss; they were both happy with the news. Although Aaron knew that once Seth and Lyor found out about it they would bug him about living with so many girls.

 **THE END**

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 **A\N:** Please review.


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